How does the show get away with calling him Big Mac?

[ggg-2 3,550]

I've been wondering, how does the show get away with calling Big Macintosh Big Mac and not get in trouble with McDonald's?

[MangoFoalix 24,898]

13 minutes ago, ggg-2 said:

I've been wondering, how does the show get away with calling Big Macintosh Big Mac and not get in trouble with McDonald's?

To be fair, there is one reason for this. It's because Mcintosh is kind of apple, you can't copyright a kind of apple. So even with putting the word big in front of it, it still is completely okay.

Edit: His name is Big Mcintosh not Big Macintosh, the apple is named Mcintosh but the Apple line of computers is called Macintosh.

[Quinch 1,119]

I don't know about McDonalds, but I'll expect him to get sued for infringement over having rounded corners.

[Tacodidra 59,807]

Hasbro and McDonald's seem to be on good terms – there have been Happy Meals with MLP toys several times. Also, another reason is probably that the Big Mac character has nothing to do with McDonald's, besides his name (we never see him making hamburgers or anything like that). For example, Coco Pommel (my avatar pony ) had to have her name changed due to the obvious connection with Chanel, with the character's links to fashion. I think even that name would have passed as parody, to be honest – Hasbro just didn't want to go through a lot of trouble to keep using the name of a minor character...

[Will Guide 21,325]

Big Mac is his nickname, not his legal name.

@TheTaZe is right, though 

14 minutes ago, TheTaZe said:

His name is Big Mcintosh not Big Macintosh, the apple is named Mcintosh but the Apple line of computers is called Macintosh.

 

[Dashy 4 Ever 4,832]

Because McDonald's is paying Hasbro. LOL

[Brony Number 42 9,935]

From what I could find, McDonald's has some trade marks for Mac in other countries. I didn't see anything about Big Mac. Remember that McDonald's sells MLP toys so they have some kind of deal with Hasbro. Also, it would be bad for them to throw a fit over a name.

[Jedishy 3,542]

Well several reasons. One you cannot copyright a name because copyright does not extend to names, titles, words or short phrases. Two depending on how they did the copyright they might not have had it for TV shows. Three its going to be hard to prove brand confusion and impact on their market. Combine them and you have a lawsuit against another titan that would be hard if not impossible and get you a lot of hate. 

 

[Misty Shadow 7,088]

Well yeah, first there's the obvious reason of his real name being Big Mcintosh. It's not just because "Big Mick" doesn't sound as good, that's also how they pronounce the name of the real-life apple. They say it like "Mac" not "Mick". Then there's the reason of McDonald's having better things to do than going after a company they're on friendly terms, alongside the fact that the name would just be an innocent parody if it really was referencing the real-life sandwich. McDonald's didn't go after Nintendo for calling the protagonist of Punch-Out Little Mac.