Small business loses trademark stoush with McDonald’s amid plans to open a restaurant called ‘McKosher’

A budding restauranter’s plans have faced a setback after fast food giant McDonald’s successfully opposed his application to trademark the name “McKosher”.

Mark Glaser attempted to register the business name “McKosher” back in 2013 with the intention of opening a restaurant in regional New South Wales that serves kosher meals based on Scottish and Jewish recipes.

However, McDonald’s opposed the trademark application on the grounds Glaser’s restaurant could be seen as part of the McDonald’s “family”.

Read more: What can and can’t be trademarked in Australia 

This is because McDonald’s has kosher outlets in Israel, and is considering renaming those kosher outlets “McKosher” after a suggestion by the Jerusalem Rabbinate.

In response, Glaser argued he is of Scottish and Jewish descent and McKosher is one of the surnames of his ancestors.

In addition, the town where Glaser hopes to open the restaurant – Maclean – has a number of local businesses that use “Mc” and “Mac” prefixes to honour the region’s Scottish settlers.

Despite putting forward these arguments to the Australian Trade Marks Office, Glaser lost the case.

John MacPhail, an intellectual property law specialist and partner at Lynch Meyer Lawyers, told SmartCompany he is not surprised McDonald’s opposed the trademark application.

“McDonald’s have got form,” MacPhail says.

“They’ve opposed other ‘Mc’ marks before. In effect, there is no downside for them in doing so.”

However, MacPhail says he is a little bit surprised McDonald’s was successful.

“The general principle with trade marks is that they are considered and registered on a country-by-country basis,” he says.

“So any plan by McDonald’s to open a kosher store in Jerusalem would not usually be given much weight [in Australia].”

SmartCompany contacted Mark Glaser for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.

SmartCompany has contacted McDonald’s Australia for comment.