McDonald’s Co. (Japan) v. K.K. Marushin Foods
Tokyo High Court
10 Mutai Zaisan Hanreishu 478 (1978)
- Written by Jenny Perry, JD
Facts
McDonald’s Company (Japan), Ltd. (McDonald’s) (plaintiff) announced that it would begin operating in Japan in January 1971 and opened its first restaurant there six months later. Prior to that, McDonald’s was known in Japan as the name of an American restaurant as early as 1966 and was widely recognized by July 1969 when K.K. Marushin Foods (Marushin) (defendant) filed registrations for a series of trademarks that were identical or very similar to marks used by McDonald’s. Once McDonald’s began operating in Japan in July 1971, McDonald’s trademarks also became well-known there. In May 1972, Marushin started selling hamburgers from vending machines using the marks it had registered. McDonald’s sued Marushin, claiming that although Marushin had registered the disputed marks first, McDonald’s had superior rights because the marks were known to belong to McDonald’s. The Tokyo District Court held that the well-known-mark exception to Japan’s first-to-register rule applied only to marks that were well-known in Japan, not in other parts of the world. The court dismissed the cause of action, and McDonald’s appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning ()
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
