Cite as 695 F.Supp. 198 (D.Md. 1988)
III. MCDONALD’S CORPORATION
McDonald’s Corporation is a Delaware corporation with its principal offices in Oak Brook, Illinois. Founded by Ray A. Kroc, it opened its first restaurant in April, 1955, in Des Plaines, Illinois. It is now the largest fast food business in the world, with over 10,000 restaurants in 45 countries and over $14 billion in sales annually. In the United States it owns or franchises over 8200 restaurants. McDonald’s restaurants serve over 18 million people daily, and of all the people in the United States who eat out, 11 percent eat dinner and 25 percent eat breakfast at McDonald’s. McDonald’s claims that within the last four weeks, 89 percent of all children between the ages of two and seven and 64 percent of all adults have eaten at a McDonald’s restaurant. Indeed, over 95 percent of the entire American population has eaten at a McDonald’s, and eight percent of the entire work force in the United States once worked at a McDonald’s restaurant.
In mass marketing McDonald’s has widely promoted its business philosophy of “quality, service, cleanliness and value,” or “Q.S.C.V.” It first began network television advertising in 1965, and today 85 percent of its advertising is television advertising, although it also advertises on the radio and in print. In fiscal 1987, it spent over $400 million in media advertising in the United States alone. Its total expenditures for advertising and promotion over the last years have been in excess of six percent of its total sales and approximately $917 million for fiscal 1987. It is the largest single brand advertiser in the United States.
At trial McDonald’s presented diverse examples of its advertising directed at particular groups and designed for particular purposes. Approximately 22 years ago, McDonald’s created the figure of Ronald McDonald, a fictitious clown who presides over McDonaldland. While Ronald McDonald over the years has promoted values consistent with McDonald’s intended image, he has never urged directly that children purchase McDonald’s products. Ronald McDonald is also used extensively in connection with Ronald McDonald Houses, a charitable function supported by McDonald’s.
McDonald’s has achieved an extremely high awareness in the minds of the Ameriean public. It claims that when asked to name a fast food restaurant, 90 percent of the public will name McDonald’s. The recognition of Ronald McDonald by children between the ages of two and eight is 100 percent, a figure matched only by Santa Claus.
In 1977, McDonald’s began advertising a fanciful language called “McLanguage” that featured the formulation of words by combining the “Mc” prefix with a variety of nouns and adjectives. In television advertising viewed by the Court, Ronald McDonald is shown teaching children how to formulate “Mc” words, and he used words such as McService, McPrice, McFries and McBest.
In a consistent vein McDonald’s has coined “Mc” words for many of its products and services. McChicken, Chicken McNuggets, Egg McMuffin or Sausage McMuffin, McD.L.T., McHappy Day, McFortune Cookie, McFeast, McCola, McPizza, McSnack are but some of the many. It has obtained trademark registrations for all of these.
McDonald’s marks are not limited to the fast food area, and it has obtained registrations for the use of marks in other areas as well. In the areas of children’s clothing, it owns McKids; in interstate travel plazas, McStop; in job programs, McJobs; in computer software, McClass; in ground shuttle transportation, McShuttle. It calls its own hotel at its home offices in Oak Brook, Illinois, McLodge.
There is no evidence to suggest that anyone prior to McDonald’s used “Mc” with a generic word. This is not to say, however, that every use today of “Mc” plus a generie word belongs to McDonald’s family of marks, a subject that is discussed further, below.
IV. SELECTION OF THE NAME “McSLEEP”
The trade name for Quality International’s new economy line of hotels, McSleep
