Your Brand Doesn’t Belong to You (Until You Register It)

In 2001, McDonald’s — one of the most recognisable brands on earth — sued a small Kuala Lumpur restaurant for using the name “McCurry.” The dispute dragged through Malaysia’s courts for eight years, all the way to the Federal Court. And McDonald’s lost.

What Happened

McCurry Restaurant, run by owner P. Suppiah since 1999, served Malaysian and Indian dishes — chicken curry, tandoori, fish head curry — from a street-corner outlet in Kuala Lumpur. Suppiah maintained the name stood for “Malaysian Chicken Curry.” McDonald’s argued the “Mc” prefix was so closely tied to its brand worldwide that any restaurant using it risked confusing customers into thinking it was somehow connected to McDonald’s.

The case went back and forth for years. Malaysia’s High Court initially sided with McDonald’s in 2006. McCurry appealed, and the Court of Appeal overturned that decision in 2009 — a ruling upheld when the case reached the Federal Court. The courts ultimately found that McCurry’s signage, menu, and overall branding were distinct enough from McDonald’s that ordinary customers were unlikely to be confused — pointing to differences in colours, logo design, and the type of food served, and noting that a restaurant selling Malaysian and Indian cuisine occupied different market space entirely.

For McDonald’s, an eight-year legal battle ended in defeat — and a reminder that even the world’s most famous brand doesn’t have unlimited reach over every business that shares part of its name.

Why This Matters for Your Business

Most SMEs assume the reverse problem is the one to worry about — a competitor copying your name or logo, and you having no way to stop them. That’s a real risk. But the McCurry case is a useful reminder that trademark disputes cut both ways, and outcomes depend heavily on what’s actually registered, where, and how distinct the branding is in practice.

A business that hasn’t registered its trademark in a given market has very limited legal standing there — regardless of how long it’s used that name at home. Expanding into Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, or Vietnam without registering your trademark locally means another business could register a similar name first, and you’d have little recourse to stop them from trading under it, or even from selling to your own future customers.

The Practical Lesson

Trademark and IP registration should happen before market entry, not after a problem arises. That means registering your brand name, logo, and any distinctive product names in each country you plan to operate in — not assuming a Singapore or global registration automatically protects you elsewhere. It also means designing branding that’s genuinely distinctive, since courts (as in the McCurry case) look closely at how different two brands actually appear and operate, not just whether a word overlaps.

AP Global Works helps companies register trademarks and protect their brand before they enter a new market — so ownership of your name is never left to chance.

Book a consultation to check your brand’s protection across the region.