Mc’Ramyun, a Korean restaurant that opened in Toronto’s Baldwin Village earlier this year has been forced to changed its name after McDonald’s accused them of copyright infringement.
According to the owners of the restaurant, Connie and Harry Kim, the “Mc” wasn’t meant to be reminiscent of McDonalds. “Mc” is actually an approximation of a Korean word that translates as “pulse” or “spirit” and their logo is also the Chinese character of that same word. But regardless, legal representatives for McDonald’s sent them a letter in May telling them they would have to change their name anyway.
The Kim’s daughter Amy told BlogTO:
“Basically, the legal representatives of McDonald's sent us a letter back in May saying they own the trademark of the prefix "Mc" and "Mac" before any food item.
Because of the costs and time associated with changing the actual registered name (for government and license registration purposes), we initially told them we would remove the use of Mc in public facing documents, but would keep the registered name as is.
After a few more email correspondents, they came back offering Aug 31st as the last day for any public facing materials, and Oct 31st as the last day to change the government registered name.
It was a resource intensive transition period and an expensive lesson learned for my parents, but as of Nov 1st, all of this mess is behind us.”
Now, the restaurant, which serves Korean fusion and a variety of ramyun dishes, is officially called Mo’Ramyun.
