Malaysian Entrepreneur wins Lawsuit solicits overseas Franchising Inquiries

22nd January 2010: Meet the man who took on McDonald’s and won. P Suppiah, a Malaysian born in Tamil Nadu, runs McCurry in Kuala Lumpur. McDonald’s sued him for trademark violation. What followed was a remarkable story of big MNC vs small entrepreneur. Now he gets fan mail from India all the time. You can’t have fries with that and no, you can’t supersize it either. But yes, it is called McCurry. In the heart of Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur, within spotting distance of the landmark twin Petronas Towers, stands Restoran McCurry.

The restaurant serves Tosai Masala (masala dosa, as we know it) for 2.50 Malaysian ringgit, Roti Canai (an adapted Chennai parotta) for RM 1.00, Ghee Uttapam (RM 1.70), and even Chicken Tikka (RM 6.00) and Aloo Paratha (RM 2.50). 

It is Indian fast food, unmistakably, but the menu is not its claim to fame.

McCurry hit headlines around the globe last year-end for delivering a legal thrashing to the global fast food giant McDonald’s in a trademark infringement case in Malaysia’s highest Federal Court. The one-outlet McCurry thus retained the right to use the ‘Mc’ identifier in its name.

It was a battle that captured the imagination of Malaysia, a country dominated by Malay Muslims but home also to Chinese and ethnic Tamil Indians. Now its victorious owner P. Suppiah, 55, a third-generation Malaysian who traces his roots back to Tamil Nadu — his grandfather came to Malaysia 100 years ago to work on rubber plantations and he himself was born in Tiruchirapalli — says he wants to go global with McCurry.

Fresh from the legal triumph, Suppiah, who dabbles in Malaysian real estate market, runs a bistro and dips into the running of his family’s palm oil plantations, says he is already talking licensing arrangements with partners in Sri Lanka, Australia and Indonesia. Since the landmark win against McDonald’s, likened by the global media to a David versus Goliath battle, McCurry has become a tourist hot spot. More importantly for Suppiah, the victory has also brought a flurry of overseas franchising inquiries, some 53 from 21 countries at last count.

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