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SUPERMAC’S HAS CLAIMED that the true motivation behind McDonald’s opposition to it operating across Europe is to prevent it from becoming a real and substantial competitor to the fast food giant there.
That is according to the Galway based fast food operator which has told the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) that “given the success of Supermac’s in Ireland and the UK, success in Europe would be highly achievable”.
Supermac’s claims that McDonald’s motivation in opposing its expansion is not to avoid confusion or injury between the two brands and the claims are contained in a 51-page submission lodged by Supermac’s to the EUIPO in the latest round of the brand wars between the two.
Supermacs supremo, Pat McDonagh, said today that he is “very optimistic” that the application will be successful.
He said: “There is absolutely no likelihood of confusion now or in the future between the two brands.”
Supermacs has told the EUIPO that its business “is iconic in Ireland and beloved of Irish people, many of whom now live abroad, including across Europe”.
The firm states that expanding its brand into Europe “arises from a real commercial imperative”.
It states that the imperative to launch its brand in Europe “is in response to the growing demand by the emigrant Irish diaspora for access to products and services familiar to them at home in Ireland”. “Supermac’s expansion into the wider European market would cater to this demand.”
David and Goliath
In the David and Goliath battle, Supermac’s has been trying to operate its brand in Europe since 2014 and already, an earlier brand application was turned down in 2016 by the EUIPO after an objection by McDonald’s.
Supermac’s lodged a revised application in 2016 with McDonald’s objecting once more. The Irish brand has left nothing to chance this time in its lengthy submission.
The documentation explains the genesis of the contentious Supermac’s brand name in the business established by Ballinasloe man McDonagh.
The Supermac’s submission states that as a keen schoolboy footballer in the 1960s at the Carmelite College in Moate, Co Westmeath, Pat McDonagh’s moniker was ‘Supermac’ which was a pun on his surname and the comic book character ‘Superman’ suggesting that as a player, he had superpowers.
The Supermac’s submission includes a letter from the former President of Moate College, Jimmy Murray, confirming that Pat McDonagh while a pupil “became known as ‘Supermac’ because of his unique role as a member of the college football team”.
Supermac’s states that the brand derives from Mr McDonagh’s nickname and was without any reference to McDonald’s “and entirely independent of it and certainly without any intention to associate the business with that of McDonald’s”.
The submission states that Supermac’s has operated since 1978 as Supermac’s in Ireland without any complaint from McDonald’s whatsoever.
Infringement
The submission states that no correspondence or other contact has ever been received by Supermac’s from McDonald’s alleging infringement of its Irish trade marks.
Supermac’s argues that the two businesses have traded without confusion or any other mistake in Ireland for 40 years and in Northern Ireland for 11 years.
The submission states that in some places, the restaurants operate in close proximity to each other, for example at Headford Road, Galway, and on O’Connell Street in Dublin, and has provided photographs to illustrate that.
Supermac’s claims that McDonald’s opposition potentially constitutes an abuse of its dominant position in the European fast food market in that it serves to prevent Supermac’s entering the European market and freely competing with McDonald’s there.
A decision is expected by the EUIPO on the application in the next number of months.
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also , I don’t think it should be called ” bettering ” their exams results , it’s questioning their results to make sure they were graded properly .
Suzie, of course people are appealing to better their result. If they thought that the examiner had been generous to them do you really think they’d appeal in order for the exam to be “graded properly”?
sloop ,yes to better their result because the students believe they did better than the results they were given so therefore appeal , but if it had been graded properly in the first place then they wouldn’t have to appeal .
But its not called bettering?
Agreed Suzie, but, not wishing to sound pedantic, the article is about the results of the appeals not why the students had to appeal. Having said that, the fact that there were so many appeals raises serious questions which need to be answered
so nearly a fifth of results appealed were wrong? that’s quite startling
Over 25% of Biology was upgraded. What a poor marking performance. And let’s not forget those marking Biology were the ones teaching it too…. scary.
25% of appealed results were upgraded, appealed results are not an accurate sample of exam papers, it is in fact a very small percentage of total papers.
25% of Biology was upgraded ? – where are you getting that figure from ? 245 out of 25,596 is not 25%……..
Now if you said 25% of those appealed, that would be different………..
well they don’t generally upgrade non appealed papers now do they. Think about it for a while…. 25% of all appealed Biology papers were upgraded. They are a representation of both the standard of marking a teaching.
I understand that S ReiIIy, but I think some thought should be put into reviewing a broader sample of appealed and unappealed papers to investigate what the actual % is, given that the percentage of appealed is so high.
How can so many results be wrong? Will the teacher that gave these wrong results be marking next year?
Course they will. You can’t punish anyone in this country
Except non public or state and semi state workers. we’re fair game.
2000 wrong out of almost 390,000 is a pretty good result. Don’t forget that for many exams what is right and what is wrong can be a matter of opinion.
1,822 upgraded yet only 3 downgraded, I somehow find it hard to believe that so many were marked mistakenly in one direction only.
There’s always going to be more upgrades as you would generally only appeal a result if you think you should have been marked higher after viewing the script yourself, and often with a teacher. If you thought you were lucky to get what you got surely you’d leave well enough alone and not appeal it?
I never knew there was an exam on One Direction Pat? If there was I’m sure a lot of teenagers scored well on it !!!
Lot of good it does for students who may have missed out on a college place due to erroneously marked papers when the term started 6 weeks ago for most colleges. Shocking number of papers marked incorrectly too it seems.
Is 1 in 200 really “shocking”? Bear in mind that many papers have a lot of wiggle room for answers to be “right” or “wrong”. Take Economics for example, one I got checked. For one question on the advantages of Foreign Direct Investment one could say:
Increases Employment
Increases State Revenue through Taxtion
Decreases Social Welfare Spend
Increases Consumer Spending
Decreases State Healthcare costs.
You could get anywhere between 5 and 30 on that answer, depending on the corrector and marking scheme. Some will come along and consider them all separate valid points, another could say that they are all spins on the same answer.
@David Hanlon. I agree that the results have come out too late. However, if you look you will see that the highest number of exams that were marked wrongly apply to Ag Science and that was 1.8%. The total on average is 0.47%. That means that 99.53% of all papers were deemed to have been marked correctly. These figures refer to the overall number of exams corrected and not to the appeals.
6 weeks is far too long to have to wait for the appeal results.
All college places have to be postponed till next year now.
It’s very important for students waiting for appeals to accept a relevant course this year so that it might count for the original course they wanted eg taking science while your hoping for medicine
Them percentages are all wrong
Did my leaving this year and failed business was shocked when I seen this so decided to view my papers , when I seen I got 38% I walked out of the room, it was the most frustrating thing ever since I did 9 months of grinds for 6th year luckily enough I got a course I’m enjoying but 2% off a pass is horrible to see
what about the junior cert appeals when can we get the statistics on those?!
have your say