Malaysia's highest court ruled today against US fast food giant McDonald's, which has waged an eight-year battle to prevent local eatery McCurry from using the prefix "Mc" in its name. "It is the end of the road for McDonald's. McCurry can use the prefix," said the lawyer Sri Dev Nair who represented the family-owned restaurant, which serves up Malaysian favourites such as tandoori chicken and fish masala.
"McCurry and McDonald's are two different businesses which sell different types of food and they have different customers," he said, rejecting McDonald's claim that the use of "Mc" in its name could cause confusion. In April, McCurry scored a David-and-Goliath victory when the appeals court overturned a 2006 high court decision that McCurry had illegally infringed on the burger chain's trademark. McDonald's today sought permission from the federal court to contest the appeals court decision, but judges denied the application and said the burger chain's petition was "not properly framed".
"It is unfortunate we have to dismiss the application with costs," said Judge Arifin Zakaria, who headed the three-member panel. Costs amounted to 10,000 ringgit ($2,845). "Justice has been served. The food that we serve is very different from McDonald's," said McCurry owner Kanaeges Suppiah. "We have no similarities with them at all. That's what we have felt all this while and that's why we could go on until this stage," she told reporters.
McDonald's counsel declined to comment, saying they had to brief their client first. "We abide by the court's decision," the lawyer Wong Sai Fong said. The McCurry restaurant, which the owners say is short for Malaysian Chicken Curry Restaurant, was established in 1999. McDonald's has 185 outlets in Malaysia, the first of which it opened in 1982. *AFP
