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McDonald’s lost the trademark rights to its “Extra Value Meal” moniker – and now it’s fighting to win them back.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected for the second time the fast-food chain’s trademark application on April 14, arguing the phrase describes a discounted food bundle – not anything unique to McDonald’s.
The burger behemoth re-launched its meal deal offerings in September 2025, including items like $5 sausage, egg and cheese McGriddle meals and $8 10-piece chicken McNuggets meals.
The world’s largest fast-food chain has used the Extra Value Meal trademark on and off for 30 years, starting in the 1990s and up until it discontinued the promotion in 2019.
Long-term trademarks need to be renewed every 10 years, but when that window popped up for McDonald’s between late 2023 and 2024, it allowed the registration to lapse, according to Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney and founder of Gerben IP.
“It’s very rare for a large company to own a trademark for three decades … and let it just abandon,” he told The Post. “It’s a bit of a head scratcher.”
To file a renewal request, McDonald’s needed to be actively using the Extra Value Meal phrase, which it wasn’t – but the company could have gotten creative and used the term in promotional ways to hold onto it for longer, Gerben said.
“This is a routine update in a trademark filing process,” a McDonald’s spokesperson told The Post.
“It has zero impact on our ability to use ‘Extra Value Meal’ in our restaurants as we have for decades. Any claims otherwise are manufactured news.”
McDonald’s filed a new trademark application in July 2025 tied to the September 2025 meal deal re-launch. That means competitors can’t use the phrase while McDonald’s fights for the patent — though they could have prior to last July.
“If Burger King wanted to have some fun, that would’ve been a fun PR move,” Gerben told The Post. “McDonald’s could’ve jumped in … but it would’ve been a bit of a fiasco.”
Gerben said McDonald’s has a very strong case for its trademark application and will likely end up winning over the USPTO.
The patent office rejected the McDonald’s application for being “merely descriptive,” meaning the phrase Extra Value Meal just describes a bundled meal deal at an extra discount.
More unique trademarks are much easier to defend, like Nike’s swoosh or Apple’s partially-bitten apple – neither of which have anything to do with sneakers or computers, Gerben said.
But McDonald’s is arguing that Extra Value Meal has “acquired distinctiveness,” meaning consumers broadly associate the phrase with McDonald’s thanks to widespread marketing, a flood of news headlines and 30 years with the brand.
In its decision on April 14, the USPTO said it could not consider the company’s arguments about acquired distinctiveness because its application was filed as “intent-to-use” – meaning McDonald’s needs to update its application to reflect that the phrase is already back in use.
The Extra Value Meal offering has played a crucial role in helping McDonald’s recover from sluggish growth as low- and middle-income consumers have cut back on dining out.
In February, McDonald’s said its US same-store sales jumped 6.8% in the fourth quarter from the previous year – attributing the rise to its meal deals and special, limited-time offerings.
English (US)