Street artists have beef with McDonald’s, threaten legal action

A group of Brooklyn-based street artists has threatened McDonald’s with legal action, alleging that the fast-food chain used its murals without permission in a Dutch advertising campaign.

Six artists—Don Rimx, Beau Stanton, Virus, NDA, Atomik, and Himbad—intend to sue McDonald’s for copyright infringement and false endorsement, according to their representative Andrew Gerber, of law firm Kushnirsky Gerber.

A statement from the firm, released on Tuesday, April 19, said that McDonald’s had commissioned several artists from the Brooklyn-based mural project Bushwick Collective to create a series of graffiti-inspired billboards.

This was to promote its “New York Bagel Supreme” burger in the Netherlands.

However, the artists alleged that the campaign also featured murals by dozens of other street artists, many of whom never consented to such use.

“The incident has sparked a social media uproar because the implied affiliation with McDonald’s can cause real and lasting damage to these artists’ reputation and to the value of their work,” said Gerber.

The artists intend to seek compensation for damages to their work and reputation, as well as profits derived from the allegedly unauthorised use of their artwork by McDonald’s.

This isn’t the first time McDonald’s has faced copyright infringement claims over street art.

In October last year, WIPR reported that the estate of late artist Dash Snow had sued the chain over the use of Snow’s graffiti artwork in “hundreds” of McDonald’s restaurants.

Join us for a FREE webinar— Navigating the CRISPR IP landscape in Europe—on April 25th.

Today's top stories

Photographer sues BuzzFeed over long nails, cuddling and dogs

Acacia subsidiary ramps up patent spat with Apple

ZTE and Microsoft in mixed ruling at Federal Circuit

Kotitschke & Heurung merges with Maiwald

Winston & Strawn add three partners from Fish & Richardson

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox