Trademark issues involving the similarly named Burger King in Mattoon, Illinois lead to a law suit whose outcome helped define the scope of the Lanham act in the US and an existing trademark held by a shop of the same name in Queensland forced the company to change its name in Australia.
When Burger King (BK) decided to expand its operations into Australia, it found that its business name was already trademarked by a man running a small takeaway food shop in Queensland. As a result, BK provided the Australian franchisee, Jack Cowin, with a list of possible alternative names that the Australian BK restaurants could be branded as. Cowin selected the "Hungry Jack" brand name, one of Pillsbury's US pancake mixture products slightly changing the name to Hungry Jack's.
In 1996 Burger King won the "Burger King" trademark in Australia, but attempts by BK to rebrand the Franchise Hungry Jacks lead to a law suit by Jack Cowin sued, culminating in a $45million judgment.
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