In Cheah v. McDonald's Corporation,
the Federal Court of Canada held that MACDIMSUM is likely to be
confusing with the MacDonald's family of trademarks.
Focusing on the evidence presented, the Court distinguished several
earlier cases in which McDonald's failed to preclude other
businesses from using the MC or MAC prefix, including
McDonald's Corporation v. Silcorp Ltd (1989) and
McDonald's Corporation v. Coffee Hut Stores Ltd
(1996), where McDonald's failed to prevent the use of MAC
for convenience stores and MCBEAN for a coffee business. In
Cheah, the Applicant, who was self‑represented, did
not meet the onus on him to prove the mark was registrable.
It was also important that the application was simply for the word
MACDIMSUM and not for that word in any particular type style or in
combination with any other word or design. Since a proposed
use application was at issue, the Court stated that it must remain
open to the fact that the trademark could potentially be
