Ronald McRipper Attacks Fundraising Teen

I’m irked. Or as one friend corrected me, McIrked.

Three years ago, 16-year-old Lauren McClusky and a friend who also sported a Mc-surname came up with a plan to raise money for the Chicago area Special Olympics. They pulled together a group of high school and college bands to perform in a festival they dubbed McFest, as a spinoff of their own names.

The Scottish/Irish heritage in me takes pride the use of such a name.

McDonalds did not.

Instead, they are bringing legal action against this now nineteen-year-old who has managed to earn $30,000 to give to charity. A huge undertaking for someone so young. I applaud her.

McDonalds does not. They seek to empty the coffers designated for the Special Olympics so they can “protect” their “property”. Seems like some hare-brained judge granted them the letters Mc as a trademark.

Huh? So some Hamburglar Bully owns the names of people who are Irish and Scottish? To quote theFrom _skynet on Flickr.com blogger from “A High Dose of Insanity,”Image by _skynet on Flickr.com

” This is one of the dumbest thing I have seen in a while. Since when does anyone own letters of the alphabet? Let alone the fact that this girl has them in her name. I mean really. Is McDonald’s hurting so much that they would take on a 19 year old, who might I add is trying to do some good?” To see her story go here: http://highdosesofinsanity.tumblr.com/

I am disgusted. And McDonalds is stupid. NO one likes a bully. They have willfully cast themselves in the role of Bully. They have done this before, and sometimes gotten away with it. But that was more under the radar. This time they took on a teen who was working way beyond what most of us can conceive of to help this poor world or ours.

The Chicago Sun Times published a list of previous suits brought by McD’s over so-called infringement:

Stats from the Sun Times “OTHER MICKEY D CHALLENGES

* In 1994, McDonald's battled 9-year-old entrepreneur Joanna Amron over the trademark of the phrase "Nothin' But Net," a line used in a series of McDonald's commercials featuring Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.

 * That same year, McDonald's forced Elizabeth McCaughey of California to change the name of her coffee shop McCoffee, which had operated under that name for 17 years.

* In 1988 the company won a case to stop Quality Inns from naming a chain of hotels "McSleep."

* In 2001, McDonald's lost a nine-year legal action against the owner of McChina Wok Away, a small chain of Chinese takeout shops in London.

* Last September, McDonald's lost a long legal battle in Malaysia against a small restaurant named "McCurry."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2011307,CST-NWS-mcfest26.article#

I am glad judges in other countries have more sense than ours appear to. I can only hope this time, a judge turns up that has a head that thinks and cannot be bought by big business.

To protest, boycott them, and tell them what and why you are doing. Here is the form you can fill out http://www1.mcdonalds.com/contactus/navigate.do?link=mcbiz

Post to social networking sites.

But as far as a response from McBurglar, I'm warning you, you'll likely get a weasel reply. I did. So I'll write again.