King’s Burger in San Jose

Burger King has long been the second fiddle to McDonald’s, but still a massive force in American fast food. Started on the other side of the country from California, in Jacksonville, Florida, it eventually moved its corporate headquarters to Miami, and expanded around the world. Problem was, “________ King” is a fairly common naming convention, so when the Florida chain, which was founded in 1953, expanded into Illinois in 1961, they ran into the OTHER Burger King, which had been operating since 1957. This led to Burger King of Florida, Inc. v Hoots, a landmark trademark case that ended up giving the Hootses (who owned the one-off Illinois Burger King) exclusive use of the name within a twenty mile radius of their Mattoon, IL restaurant. To this day, if you want a Whopper and you’re in Mattoon, you’ll have to drive at least 25 miles to one of BK’s 319 other restaurants in Illinois. It was even worse when Burger King went international, as it found its Australian expansion plans confounded by a local Burger King in Adelaide, and ended up moving ahead with the expansion as Hungry Jack’s. If you want a Whopper anywhere in Oz, Hungry Jack’s is the place you’ve got to go.

“King’s Burger”

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