Burger King was founded as Insta-Burger King in 1954 in Florida, US.
It was renamed Burger King in 1959 and was bought over by Pillsbury in 1967.
Like McDonald’s and KFC, Burger King was expanding worldwide, and in 1971, it decided to enter Australia through a franchisee, “Jack” Cowin.
But the company couldn’t trademark the name “Burger King” in Australia, where a local restaurant with the same name was already operating.
Jack Cowin chose to open stores as Hungry Jack’s, a variation of the famous pancake mix brand Hungry Jack, which Pillsbury owned.
Hungry Jack’s soon became the largest Burger King franchisee outside of the U.S.
All this while, the company tried to buy the trademark from the local Burger King but couldn’t succeed.
In the 1990s, the trademark of the local Burger King expired.
And Burger King’s international head office immediately opened up around 80 Burger King outlets.
And Hungry Jack’s (aka Burger King) found itself competing with Burger King.
Burger King claimed that while Cowin had been granted the sole franchise for Australia, he had not fulfilled the terms of the franchise agreement.
This led to a legal battle, which ended in 2001, where Hungry Jack’s won the exclusive Burger King rights in Australia.
Despite winning the rights to use Burger King, Jack Cowin retained the name Hungry Jack’s, as it was firmly established and was considered purely Australian.
