McCurry - Wall Street Journal Article

Source - Wall Street Journal

Any trademark lawyers care to weigh in on this case? We don’t know trademark law well enough to answer why we feel this way, we have a sense that U.S. trademark law might have dictated a different result.

The news: McDonald’s Corp. on Tuesday lost an eight-year battle to prevent a family-run Kuala Lumpur restaurant from calling itself “McCurry.” Click here for the WSJ story.

Huh. So McCurry lives on? Apparently so. Sri Dev Nair, a McCurry lawyer, interprets the ruling as meaning that as long as other restaurants distinguish their cuisines from that of McDonalds, other restaurants are free to use the prefix. McDonald’s officials couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, but the Associated Press reported the company’s counsel as saying it will abide by the judgment.

McCurry’s struggle to be known as McCurry has become a cause celebre in Malaysia in recent years. Established in 1999, the restaurant adopted a Western-style fast-food ambience to serve traditional Indian and Malaysian dishes, such as fish-head curry.

“We chose an international-sounding name to attract as many customers as possible,” said P. Suppiah (pictured, left), one of the restaurant’s owners. McCurry, he said, is shorthand for “Malaysian chicken curry,” and the restaurant’s logo displays a bright-yellow chicken giving a thumbs-up sign.

Suppiah’s 24-hour restaurant quickly become a local icon in the Jalan Ipoh district of Kuala Lumpur, with red-and-white signage and a popular menu with Malaysian-style tea, coconut rice with spicy shrimp and chicken, and chicken tandoori.

McDonald’s, however, saw McCurry as a legal threat. They first sued McCurry for trademark infringement in 2001 and a court ruled in favor of McDonalds in 2006.

McCurry appealed, and the Court of Appeal ruled in the Malaysian restaurant’s favor in April this year, pointing out that McCurry serves curry, not burgers. McDonald’s then took the matter to Malaysia’s Federal Court, which on Tuesday ruled that McDonald’s can’t appeal against the lower court verdict.

Again, we’d love a bit of insight here. Seems to us that if a Western-style fast-food sushi restaurant decided to call itself “McSushi,” it might be outta luck.

McCurry Wins Big McAttack in Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur Eatery Defeats Trademark Challenge From McDonald's in Country's Top Court

American fast-food giant McDonald's Corp. on Tuesday lost an eight-year battle to prevent a family-run Kuala Lumpur restaurant from calling itself McCurry, after Malaysia's top court said the Indian-food joint could use the prefix "Mc" in its name.

A McCurry lawyer, Sri Dev Nair, said the ruling means McDonald's doesn't have a monopoly on the prefix "Mc," and that other restaurants could also use it as long as they distinguished their food from McDonald's.

Karwar Lawyers Pay Homage to the 26-11 Victims

We, as small Group of Lawyers friends at Karwar paid Homage to the valiant Heroes and the innocent victims of the 26-11 Mumbai Terror Attacks, at the residence/office Mr. Pradeep M Naik Advocate.

Mumbai's prominent landmarks like the Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, Oberoi Trident, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, Nariman House fell prey to the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives. Several brave officers of the Mumbai Police force like Joint Commissioner of Police, Anti-Terrorist Squad, Hemant Karkare, Police Inspector, Anti Extortion Cell, Vijay Salaskar and Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte fell prey to the bullets. National Security Guards and Marine Commandos were summoned to bring the situation under control. The NGS also lost its two personnel, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Commando Gajendra Singh. The day is a tribute to all those martyrs who gave up their lives to ensure others could live to tell their tales and a salute to the bravery of those who survived. CNN-IBN

Attending the Homage ceremony at Karwar Lawyer Pradeep M Naik's house, were Anil Mayekar, Anirudh Haldipurkar, Jagadish Harwadekar, Ramnath Bhat, Yogesh Naik, Nagaraj Deshbhandari, Varada Naik, Vinayak Naik, A. D. Naik, Ramnath Parulekar, Jyoti Mirashi, Gajanan P Tarikar, Ashwini Gowda, etc. Advocate Kiran Naik sang patriot songs and 2 minutes of silence was observed.

The first anniversary of the horrific 26/11 Mumbai terror carnage was also the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Indian constitution but sadly, this did not get the attention it deserved, a Rajya Sabha MP lamented Thursday. ‘This morning, when we assembled, we paid tribute to the victims of the 26/11 attack. But we have forgotten that our constitution was adopted on 26th November 1949. Today is the 60th anniversary of that momentous event,’ Bharatiya Janata Party member S.S. Ahluwalia said during zero hour. ‘Sadly, there is no mention of this in the media. Parliament too has forgotten about it. There was not even a bouquet placed in the Central Hall where the constitution was adopted,’ Ahluwalia added.

Source: 26/11 anniversary is also 60th anniversary of constitution’s adoption 60th anniversary, ahluwalia, indian constitution, rajya sabha

A year later, the entire nation has come together to observe the first anniversary of the 26/11 attacks and pay homage to the 166 people who lost their lives. Indian Express
Nation observes first anniversary of 26/11

More money, less proofreading - Legalweek

More money, less proofreading - Legalweek

Stephenson Harwood solicitor Rabia Younus on the transformation from trainee to qualified lawyer

Many of you will have recently received the long-awaited, extremely valuable (and very expensive!) piece of paper known as a practising certificate - proof that you are finally qualified to practise as a solicitor. However, if you were expecting some earthshaking feeling or sudden enlightenment on the mysterious and murky depths of the law, I am afraid you'll have been disappointed. What you will progressively sense, though, is the subtle yet significant transformation of your role within your firm. I qualified in the commercial litigation group at Stephenson Harwood in March this year. Seven months' post-qualification, and the differences between life as a trainee and a newly-qualified solicitor (NQ) are becoming increasingly apparent.

Am I now expected to run matters on my own?

No is the short answer. Nor will you suddenly be expected to know all the answers. In fact, it's likely that you will have almost the same level of supervision as a trainee. You will, however, be expected to be more proactive. Gone are those days as a trainee when you waited for instructions from your supervisor; partners will now expect you to take active steps without being prompted - for example, preparing a draft response to a client query, suggesting a solution to a problem or proposing the next steps in a matter.

A striking difference between life as a trainee and an NQ is the sudden leap in responsibility. Tasks which are not usually entrusted to trainees like conducting meetings on your own, liaising directly with clients, reviewing and commenting on agreements and preparing bills, may now fall upon you. You may also find that partners will rely on you to remember deadlines. As you can no longer hide behind the trainee card if things go wrong, you must be organised, think ahead and, most importantly, diarise deadlines.

What practical changes should I be aware of?

One of the main added pressures of qualification is hourly billing targets. Most firms have informal targets for trainees, but upon qualification these will now become official and be used as part of your assessments and possibly be linked to a bonus scheme. Consequently, it is important that you demonstrate enthusiasm to take on as much work as you can manage and that you record time accurately and efficiently.

A further practical change is continuing professional development (CPD). In order to renew your practising certificate each year, you must attend enough accredited courses and events or engage in accredited activity to accumulate the requisite number of CPD points by the end of the CPD year.

Do I need to bring in clients now that I am qualified?

Not exactly, but you may be expected to start engaging in more business development. This may mean attending more client drinks and seminars to work on your networking skills, or you may go a little further and organise a networking event yourself.

What are the perks of being qualified?

While the increased responsibility may seem a little frightening, it goes hand in hand with more interesting work. A bonus of qualification is that you can finally delegate jobs such as bundling and proofreading to trainees and paralegals, leaving you with time to get stuck into the juicier work.

Once qualified, it is important that you start to delegate work. Naturally, you will find this difficult at first as you may be delegating to someone who is only six months your junior or someone who you are friends with, but it's important - not only so that you can concentrate on fee earning tasks, but also because your clients will not be happy if they are being charged at your newly qualified rate for non fee earning tasks.

Lastly, you will notice a nice little increase in your salary that should make all this extra work and responsibility a little less of a burden.

Rabia Younus is an assistant solicitor at Stephenson Harwood

Men harassed by women, raise voice against Anti-dowry law

Section 498 of the Indian Penal Code, Originally framed to shield women from dowry harassment now become a “tool of frame-up”, allegedly being used by women to extort alimony from husbands. At least that seems so from National Crime Record Bureau figures showing 1.65 lakh married men committed suicide between 2005 and 2007 as compared to 88,000 women.

Seeking equality for men, an NGO, ‘Save Indian Family Foundation’ (SIFF), while citing these figures, raised the issue of gender bias on the International Men’s Day today. The SIFF along with Parivar Raksha Samiti, Chandigarh, demanded institution of ‘men welfare ministry’, ‘national commission for men’, abolishment of (anti-male) gender biased laws and replacing the word wife in law with spouse.

Besides, the NGO also insisted on rationalising the working of the National Commission for Women (NCW) and holding it accountable for “false propagandas”, formation of an ombudsman to regulate the anti-male quotient in media, films and TV and generating awareness about health issues related to men like prostate cancer on the line of breast cancer, short life expectancy and high suicide rate.

Vikas Kapur, coordinator of SIFF, said over 22,000 Indian men had ended their life in reverse dowry harassment by their wives against 6,800 suicides by women harassed for dowry. In all the 6,800 suicides by women, their husbands had been sent to jail without any investigation. However, over 68 per cent of the men were later found to be innocent.

And in the 22,000 suicides by men, cases had been registered only in six incidents and not a single woman had been questioned as to why their husbands ended life, let alone any punishment.

The crime against men has increased at a rate of 42 per cent over the past five years. Not only in crime, in lifestyle, too, women are dominating men, said Kapur, citing statistics showing women's average annual earned income was US $1,471 in 2002, almost three times less than the average for income of men at US $4,723. Still, he said, shopping malls were dominated by women.

The representatives of the SIFF stated that though the government earned 82 per cent of taxes from men, it has not spent a single rupee for their welfare or enacted a single law to protect men. On the other hand, more than 98 per cent of men are in armed forces while less than 28 per cent serve in media industry.

The prostitution industry is dominated by 99.98 per cent women against 0.02 per cent of men while 70 per cent of women are employed in reception, office telecom, school, bank, etc, jobs, having ease of work with less burden.

Among the victims who shared their miseries on Thursday  were a former Lt Col from Pathankot, an elderly woman from Chandigarh whose husband died of mental trauma, a software engineer and a man who sought court’s permission to sell off his kidney to raise funds to pay maintenance to his estranged wife.

Source - Punjab News Line