McDonald’s Bid to Re-register ‘Extra Value Meal’ Trademark Denied by USPTO
McDonald’s revived the ‘Extra Value Meal.’
Now it has to fight to own the name again.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has denied the company’s trademark application for the phrase it once owned for 30 years.
The refusal, issued April 14, marks the second time the USPTO has denied the application, concluding that the phrase remains too descriptive to qualify for trademark protection.
McDonald’s famously used ‘Extra Value Meal’ for years as a bundled offering, pairing items like burgers, fries, and drinks at a discounted price. The company first introduced the concept in 1991 and obtained a federal trademark registration beginning in 1994.
But after discontinuing the promotion in 2019, McDonald’s allowed the registration to lapse when it came up for renewal between late 2023 and 2024, a period during which the mark was no longer in active commercial use.
Under U.S. trademark law, continued use in commerce is required to maintain a trademark registration.
In September 2025, McDonald’s reintroduced the ”Extra Value Meal,’ bringing back bundled menu options, including combinations built around its signature burgers and Chicken McNuggets, marketed as offering roughly 15% savings. Months earlier, in July 2025, the company had filed a new trademark application tied to the relaunch.
But the USPTO found the phrase to be “merely descriptive,” determining that the individual terms, “extra,” “value,” and “meal,” collectively describe a discounted food bundle rather than identify a unique source.
McDonald’s pushed back, arguing on appeal that the phrase still functions as a source identifier in the minds of consumers due to decades of use and lingering brand recognition. The company also pointed to extensive media coverage and a national advertising campaign surrounding the relaunch.
The USPTO is not yet persuaded.
In its latest decision, issued on April 14th, the agency said it could not fully consider McDonald’s arguments about acquired distinctiveness because the application remains based on an “intent-to-use” filing, meaning the company had not formally updated the application to reflect that the mark is now back in use.
Where McDonald’s Went Wrong
Here’s where this gets interesting and a little self-inflicted.
McDonald’s main problem right now isn’t just that ‘Extra Value Meal’ is descriptive. It’s that the company didn’t clean up the procedural side of its application.
The fast food company initially filed this as an intent-to-use application in July 2025, before the relaunch. That’s fine.
But once it actually brought the promotion back in September, it needed to amend the filing to reflect that the trademark is now “in commercial use” if it wanted to argue acquired distinctiveness.
McDonald’s didn’t do that.
And that gave the USPTO an easy out.
Because without that amendment, the agency essentially said: we can’t even evaluate your “everyone knows this is McDonald’s” argument yet.
Ultimately, once McDonald’s corrects this error, it has a strong case on the merits to get the trademark re-registered.
This is a phrase the company used for nearly 30 years. If you ask the average consumer what an ‘Extra Value Meal’ is, a lot of them will say McDonald’s. That’s the exact test for acquired distinctiveness: whether the public associates the term with a single source.
McDonald’s also has a prior federal registration that lasted from 1994 to 2019. That’s powerful evidence.
So, will it ultimately get this trademark back?
I think yes, but only after fixing the filing.
The bigger lesson here is that trademark registrations can remain active only if a trademark is actively used in the marketplace.
In this case, McDonald’s had a 30-year asset and let it go dormant. That opened the door not only to this fight with the USPTO, but potentially to third parties stepping in and registering the phrase.
The lesson for everyone else?
If a company has a trademark with significant value, it should consider creative ways to continue using it even if the current marketing plan is shifting away from making it a main focus.
For example, McDonald’s could have run periodic ‘Extra Value Meal’ promotions to keep the original registration active.
It did not, and it is now ensuring its attorneys have enough money to buy ‘Extra Value Meals’ for a long time.
Josh Gerben, Esq.
Josh Gerben, Esq. is a nationally recognized trademark attorney and the founder of Gerben IP. Since launching the firm in 2008, he has overseen the registration of over 10,000 trademarks and handled over 1,500 trademark disputes. Josh's practice focuses on building and defending global trademark portfolios for clients. These clients include entrepreneurs, private equity-backed businesses, athletes, celebrities, and public companies. Frequently quoted by major media outlets like CNBC, CNN, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, Josh is widely regarded as a leading authority in trademark law.
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