People have found McDonald’s dupes at different grocery stores. For example, a dupe for the Big Mac Sauce was found at Walmart, a dupe of the sausage patties were discovered at Aldi, and a dupe of the McNuggets were found at Kroger. Many of the shoppers who made the discoveries claim the dupes taste like the originals, and they are often a cheaper alternative. However, what crosses the line between a lookalike and trademark infringement? A man posed that question after stumbling upon frozen dupes of some of McDonald’s most popular items while shopping at a U.K.-based store called Iceland Food Warehouse.
In a video with over 663,000 views, TikTok user Dean Hanford (@deanhanford) unveils a bunch of McDonald’s dupes in Iceland Food Warehouse’s freezer sections. The fonts and colors on the boxes resemble McDonald’s branding. He shows a box of 20-piece nuggets in regular and spicy flavors. Some of the other boxes contain the “Big Stack” Burger (a Big Mac knockoff), a Sausage Double Stack, and 5-piece Tenders. The content creator said, “McDonald’s needs to call their lawyers.”
Hanford cracked a joke in the caption. “Mum can we go to mcdonalds? ‘no sweetie we have mcdonalds at home.’”
@deanhanford mum can we go to mcdonalds? “no sweetie we have mcdonalds at home” #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #viral #fypシ #mcdonalds #foodtok #food #xyzbca #drivethru #funnyvideos #foodtiktok ♬ Hoist The Colours (Bass Singers Version) – Ebucs & Eric Hollaway & Daniel Brevik & Bobby Bass
The Daily Dot reached out to Hanford via Instagram direct message and TikTok comment, as well as to Iceland Food Warehouse and Snacksters via email. In the comments section, viewers likewise made that similar joke and expressed their desire to purchase these frozen McDonald’s dupes.
“ABOUTTA TEAR THAT SH!T UP,” one said.
“I need the chicken tenders,” another wrote.
What crosses the trademark territory are four things: “appearance, sound, connotation, and commercial impression.” However, there isn’t a set copyright law in the U.K. “There are no specific provisions in IP laws which protect a business when a competitor launches a lookalike product; instead, a business must look to rely on the individual IP laws and work out which one, or which combination of laws will help them prevent a competitor launching a lookalike product,” per Barker Brettell, Intellectual Property.
Nevertheless, these grocery stores get away with fast-food replicas in different countries. According to Yahoo, “Aldi and other budget stores take advantage of this by taking cues from well-known brand packaging and logos and tweaking them for their own branding, then choosing a different name.”
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