STOCKHOLM (AFP) — A Swedish strip club could face legal action from McDonald's if it fails to remove a sign believed to be a rip-off of its famous golden arches, the US fast food giant said Thursday.
A sign that hangs outside McDragan's strip club in Edsvaera, southwestern Sweden, shows a large red "M" with nipples -- something which the US fast-food chain says is a breach of its own copyrighted logo.
"We feel the sign and the way they portray the M on the sign is too similar to our M. We don't want to be connected to a strip club in any way," McDonald's spokeman Claes Eliasson told AFP.
Eliasson said the company had sent a letter to the club owner asking him to remove the sign, adding McDonald's would consider whether to take any legal action next week.
"We will of course consult with our legal counsellors on what steps should be taken depending on his response," he said.
But McDragan's owner Dragan Bratic, a 37-year-old Swedish national of Yugoslav origin, said he had not yet heard from McDonald's and denied he deliberately copied their logo.
"Striptease elicits a reaction in people. So we thought it would be a good idea to have a lighthearted sign. We found an image in a Japanese magazine of two breasts, and were inspired by that."
"I have nothing to do with hamburgers...they just want to distance themselves from striptease," he said.
Bratic dismissed McDonald's concerns that customers would draw a link between their restaurants and his strip club on seeing the sign.
"You can't make that mistake! The breasts are huge!," he said.
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