The world-renowned fastfood giant has just fought its latest battle against a hotel industry trademark application: “McDreams Hotels.”

Trademark Protection Strategy:

To combat this new application, McDonald’s has used the more than one hundred brands granted that make up its family of brands.

A “collection” of differentiating signs from which he came to use up to 17 of the most recognized world’s (“BIGMAC, McFlurry, McCAFE”) to strengthen his defense and demonstrate his renown*

The four key issues discussed were:

1. The similarity of the “McDreams Hotel” logo to one of the trademarks registered by McDonald’s.
2. The resemblance to fast food and lodging services.
3. The possibility of users confusing the “McDreams Hotels” brand as a McDonald’s line of business.
4. The cost savings in advertising that this brand “McDreams Hotels” would entail for the brand “McDreams Hotels”.

Applicant’s Defense:

In its defence, the hotel brand claimed that there was no similarity between the two brands since “McDreams Hotels”, in addition to presenting several words in another language, (referring to the claim that accompanies the brand,“Tr’umen zum kleinen Preis” – “sweet dreams at low cost”-) included a symbol that differentiated it.

It also provided data on the combination of letters “Mc”, which originates from a Scottish or Irish surname (such as that of the founders of McDonald’s) and which, to this day, was used by other low-cost companies, as was the case with the low-cost franchise, as was the case with the Mcfit gyms.

Although the hotel brand had initially been applied for for “food and drink” services, McDreams hotels subsequently decided to limit its trademark application only for “temporary accommodation” services, and thus try to address the problem with McDonald’s.

Conflict Resolution:

Finally, all the elements as a whole were analyzed and McDonald’s was right.

Regarding similarity between trademarks, it was considered that, although this similarity was low, it did exist, since it contained the famous “Mc”, on the one hand, and on the other “McDreams Hotels” also incorporated the red and yellow color.

Colors similar to those already used by McDonald’s in its old logo and that follow, currently, associated with its image.

On the other hand, as regards the services representing each of the marks, they were considered to have a relationship with each other, including that they were supplemented (“Food and beverage service is in many cases essential for temporary accommodation… wherethe relevant audience is the same, so they are similar services”).

After the case of “McDreams Hotels” and the “renamed” fast food brand, we give you three recommendations when applying for registration of your brand:

1o) Make sure your trademark is not registered and that it does not have any resemblance to any brand already! You can use our brand search to check it out!

2o) If when the time comes you intend to have several lines of business, products or services, it may be a good idea to register multiple brands and create your own family of brands. You don’t need to have more than 100 like McDonald’s, but… for a reason you can start!

3o) Register the firstone, don’t have your brand taken away!

*RENOWNED Brand

The renowned mark is one that achieves a more widespread degree of knowledge or dissemination, at the population level and not only among regular consumers. The scope of protection extends to any category of products, service, or activity.