McDonalds fights to win back Extra Value Meal moniker after patent office rejections

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 … b...