Retail Watchers

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... -supermacs

Hadn't heard about this until now, but Supermac's (an Irish burger chain) recently got the EU Intellectual Property Office to invalidate McDonald's trademark on the name Big Mac after they failed to prove geniune use of the name in the previous five year period.

It seems likely to be overturned on appeal, but in the meantime Burger King is using the opportunity to troll McDonald's:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... AJ2vqh5hBI

There's a thread on Reddit which explains in a bit more detail what happened here. Basically McDonald's screwed up big time by trademarking the name "Big Mac" for both products and restaurant locations under the same trademark. Since they never used the name "Big Mac" for a restaurant anywhere in Europe (from what I've heard they did in Japan at one point) the trademark for both was invalidated.