JOIN USMalaysia’s Federal Court, which ruled against McDonald’s application, also ordered the American food chain to pay RM 10,000 (Rs 130,000) cost to ‘McCurry Restaurant (KL) Sdn Bhd’. “Our view is that the questions posed by McDonald’s were not properly framed and the court should dismiss the leave application,” Chief Judge of Malaya Arifin Zakaria said.
The court had adjourned the case on Monday after finding that the questions raised by McDonald’s lawyers unclear and asked that they be rephrased. McDonald’s, which has 185 outlets in Malaysia, filed a leave application in the apex court to challenge the Court of Appeal’s April 29 ruling which said it was wrong to assume that McDonald’s had a monopoly on the use of the prefix “Mc”.
A High Court had earlier ruled in favour of McDonald’s but McCurry took the fight to the Court of Appeal.
During the court hearings, McCurry said McDonald’s could not claim monopoly or exclusive rights to the use of “Mc” as that prefix was extensively used around the world as surnames, particularly by people of Scottish origin.
“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 here.