July 27 is the day the modern hamburger was born

To celebrate its birthday, we’d like to share with you a few fun trivia facts about this famous fast food item. 

Many restaurant owners claim to be the "father" of the hamburger. Legend has it that it was Louis Lassen of New Haven who served a “sandwich” consisting of two slices of toast and a patty to the visitors to his restaurant back in 1900. And that, according to the Library of Congress, was the very first hamburger. The largest burger ever was made in Pilsting, Germany, in 2017. When it was ready, it weighed 1,164 kg. 

There is still a great deal of controversy that surrounds the hamburger, though. For instance, back in October 2019, Burger Rus LLC (a Burger King franchisee) filed a request with Rospatent, Russia's Federal Service for Intellectual Property, to terminate the legal protection of the "BIG MAC" trademark registered for goods in Class 30 under the Nice Classification in the name of McDonald's Corporation.

Burger Rus LLC claimed, in particular, that the "BIG MAC" name had already come into general use to denote a certain type of goods, such as burgers with two patties served in a three-part sesame seed bun, and that "BIG MAC" is used as a generally accepted term when ordering a similar item in fast food restaurants (including the Burger King chain). The cancellation of the legal protection of the Big Mac trademark, according to Burger Rus LLC, would lead to increased competition, lower prices for the product and, as a result, the Big Mac would become more affordable to the general public in the Russian Federation.

The Chamber for Patent Disputes rejected the claim by Burger Rus LLC, since the latter presented no evidence that the "BIG MAC" trademark had come into general use to denote a certain type of goods. In particular, Burger Rus LLC failed to prove that the "BIG MAC" name had long been in use by various independent manufacturers, which caused it to become generic. The company also failed to present evidence of 'BIG MAC' being used as a generic name by experts in relevant branches of production, salespeople, consumers. Likewise, Burger Rus LLC didn't manage to provide objective data that the cancellation of the legal protection of the BIG MAC trademark will increase competition and reduce prices for the product.