Friday, June 20, 2008 The Burger King trademark case By Clint Fabiosa & Andrew Ong I protect
BURGER King is a restaurant owned by the Hoots family in Mattoon, Illinois and is the original Burger King restaurant. It is not related to the fastfood chain Burger King.
At first, things went smoothly for the business until the Hoots family learned of the Burger King in Florida. Before they opened the business, the Hoots family filed a state trademark application which gave them exclusive rights to the “Burger King” name all over the State of Illinois. On the other hand, Burger King of Florida was able to file a federal trademark registration.
However, the larger Burger King opened its first Illinois restaurant in Skokie in 1961, and by 1967, the chain had 50 restaurants all over the state.
In 1967, the Hoots family filed suit in the state court.
In its decision, the Court ruled that, because of the federal trademark registration, and because the federal law indicated priority over state law, Florida’s Burger King had rights to the name almost everywhere in the United States, including in Illinois, except in the Mattoon area, where the Hoots family had prior actual use. As a result of the case, the Hoots family cannot use the name “Burger King” outside of the Mattoon area, and the Florida chain cannot use the name in the Mattoon area.
