The European Court (decision of 05.07.2016, Az.: T 518/13) decided on the valuation of the McDonald´s trademarks. Thereby, the relevant public obviously associates the prefixes „Mc“ and „Mac“ to McDonald´s in terms of food products and beverages.

In 2008, the trademark „MACCOFFEE“ was registered with the EUIPO for the company Future Enterprises in Singapore. In 2013, McDonald´s submitted an application for a declaration of invalidity for this trademark due to a risk of confusion with one of the trademarks e.g. McFISH, McTOAST, McMUFFIN und McDonald´s. Said declaration of invalidity was granted by the EUIPO. The European Court has now approved this decision and confirmed a similarity between „MACCOFFEE“ and McDonald´s on a tonal and conceptual level. The prefix “MAC“ thereby suggests a connection with the products of the fast food restaurant chain McDonald´s, which include the prefix “Mc“ and consequently comprise a highly similar word structure. An intellectual association is established between the trademarks such that the relevant public assigns the community trademark „MACCOFFEE“ with the company McDonald´s. Therefore, the company Future Enterprises however only aims to benefit from the reputation and the economic effort of McDonald´s. Thus, the prefixes „MAC“ and „Mc“ can be considered as equal.