McCurry beats McDonalds in a spicy Trademark Battle

This long-running curry war has all the perfect ingredients for a business lesson. Global giant McDonalds has just lost an eight-year legal battle against a fast food outlet in Malaysia which it claimed was infringing its iconic trademark.  Now McCurry is free to pursue its ambitious growth strategy without fear for further legal action from the burger kings.

Battle Of The Bunnies

There’s a battle going on in the chocolate rabbit world which could provide an interesting example of how businesses try to protect their products and ideas.

The products in question are shown in the picture below which is on the Guardian website.

Could consumers be confused?

Protecting a business idea - the irn-bru way

Here is a great way of illustrating the concept of protecting a business idea - without resorting to the tired and boring descriptions of patents, copyright and trademarks.  Step forward the maker of Irn-Bru

Video case study - Yorkshire firms battle over trademark

Betty’s - an internationally-recognise brand - is taking on a much smaller business in a dispute over a trademark-protected product name.  A great case study for the topic of “protecting a business idea”

Download worksheet and video link (pdf)

Browse our collection of video case studies

Protecting a business idea - Scrabulous under fire

Here’s a good example of a well established brand that is fighting to protect its intellectual property against start-ups that are exploiting new online opportunities…