A small restaurant in Kuala Lumpur is once again proudly trading as “McCurry,” after its unlikely victory in an eight-year legal battle with US fast food giant McDonald’s.
With its fragrant tandoori chicken and fish masala, and customers at formica tables cooled by fans turning lazily overhead, the business is difficult to confuse with McDonald’s and its racks of burgers.
“You can’t have fries with that but we do have a very good potato curry,” owner AMSP Suppiah, 55, says with a laugh.
But Suppiah and his wife Kanageswary spent eight years battling in the courts for the right to retain the name of the business, pursued by McDonald’s lawyers who forced them to operate as “M Curry” for several years.
“We were surprised that a giant like McDonald’s would want to take action against us even though there was nothing in common between us and them,” Suppiah said.
“We decided to appeal because we felt we were right and the court of appeal agreed with us this week,” he said after a Malaysian court ruled the business had not infringed on the McDonald’s trademark by using the prefix “Mc.”
To the delight of the local press, Suppiah then took a ladder to climb to the brightly colored signboard and reinstate the controversial “c”.
Tucking into dosai — Indian pancakes — Suppiah says he never expected to win the battle against the international food giant.
“There were times when we almost gave up hope because who would have imagined that we could win against such a big company with so much money and resources at their disposal,” he said.
Suppiah says his troubles began when he set up the restaurant in 1999, shortening the name Malaysian Chicken Curry Restaurant to the McCurry restaurant.
“But within a year, I began receiving letters from McDonald’s urging me to change the name and threatening legal action,” he said.
Unable to resolve the impasse, McDonald’s sued Suppiah and a court agreed with the US giant in 2006, forcing Suppiah to remove the prefix from his signs and business.
Kanageswary says the victory has come at a cost.
“We faced a lot of mental anguish ... for eight years our business has been in limbo because no one wants to invest in a company facing litigation and so we have not been able to make any improvements to the restaurant,” she said.
However, the Suppiahs’ lawyer Sri Dev Nair thinks McDonald’s will not give up so easily.
“The case has shown that McDonald’s want to control the monopoly over the use of the prefix ‘Mc’ and it has a lot of money to be able to do this so many small restaurants just give in to them,” he said.
“We expect them to challenge the ruling and we will be prepared to face them in court,” he said.
Suppiah says he does not hold any grudges.
“I would like to invite the president of McDonald’s worldwide to come here to McCurry’s and have a dosai, on the house — but we can’t supersize it,” he said.
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