Copyrights and trademarks don't get no respect in developing economies. Not like in the USA and Western Europe anyway.

Here we see an American icon incorporated into the brand identity of a convenience store franchise.

I haven't heard that the Road Runner has entered the public domain. And I can't imagine Warner Brothers licensing him at a price this chain could afford.

(At the risk of condescending to expatriate readers, I'll point out that the name of the store is pronounced "beep beep.")

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In Capitola on Monterey Bay in California, a funky vegetarian restaurant operated for some years under the name, McDharma's. Once alerted, McDonalds Corporation's lawyers crushed McDharma's with lawsuits. McDharma's lost and changed their name. I can see McDonalds' CEO wiping the nervous sweat off his brow: "Boy, we sure dodged a bullet with that McDharma's thing."

I bet he doesn't know about the latest threat to the McDonalds hegemony:

Yes, it's McNopal's, right down to the golden arches. (If any McDonalds executives are reading this, I want a finder's fee after you collect.)

Actually, I think McNopal's is less of a threat than McDharma's was. There's something fundamentally wrong with McNopal's concept. I just can't get hooked on the idea of a grilled cactus pad on a bun. McDonalds Corporation probably can let this one slide, if you ask me.

I'm thinking that if you see a lot of copyright violations, you may be in a country where maintaining your human rights is a little sketchy. I mean, if multinational corporations find the local justice system inadequate for protecting their intellectual property, what do you think your chances are?

Bip Bip.