McDonald's makes Toronto restaurant change its name

A Korean restaurant in Toronto has been forced to change its name after its original moniker was apparently too similar to that of global fast food chain McDonald's.

Mo'Ramyun (formerly McRamyun's), opened earlier this spring. Intellectual property lawyers approached owners Connie and Harry Kim soon after they opened their Baldwin Village-area eatery.

The thing is, the "Mc" prefix wasn't supposed to evoke McDonald's. Rather, it referred to a Korean word that means "pulse" or "spirit." McDonald's, however, wasn't pleased with the similarities.

Here's a full statement from the Kim's daughter Amy:

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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.

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