Do I have to respond to a final office action?

McDonald’s, or “McBully, as labelled by Pat McDonagh, the founder of Irish chain of fast-food restaurants Supermac’s, has suffered another defeat. Following the previous loss of its “Big Mac” trademark, the use of “Mc” is no longer protected by trademark.

Kickresume is an example of a successful startup business created by Tomáš Ondrejka and Peter Ďuriš. This online tool for the creation of CVs has already helped more than 1,000,000 users get their dream job. It is the easy-to-remember name of Kickresume that has fostered the growth of this project. At the same time, it was the fear of the possible need to rebrand a successful business name that highlights the importance of brand protection efforts in the early stages of startup companies.

Approximately 100 million new businesses are established each year [1]. The failure rate of startups is around 90% [2] and while there is a myriad of factors that influence startup success, we do believe that effective brand protection represents one of them. This article thereby presents a concise summary of 13 good reasons why startups should think about trademark registration from the very start.