https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200605/10373344653/judge-orders-down-n-out-burger-joint-to-hand-over-all-signage-to-in-n-out-which-has-almost-no-presence-australia.shtml

Two years ago we wrote a post about famed burger-slinger In-N-Out's bullshit strategy for keeping its trademarks in Australia active and valid. That strategy amounts to the chain doing a popup restaurant briefly once every five years, essentially the minimum to keep a trademark active through use in the country. This has been going on for some time, which makes it fairly clear that In-N-Out has no real plans to have a permanent presence in Australia. And, yet, it goes about keeping its trademarks active.

Why? Well, at least in part, apparently, so that it can bully other companies that might brand themselves in a similar fashion. From our earlier post, In-N-Out went after an Australian burger chain calling itself Down 'N Out, which used marketing that was clearly an homage to the California chain. That kind of homage would certainly land a company in trademark hot water in a competing market... except In-N-Out is only in the Australian market in the most transient sense possible. Despite that, an Australian court recently ruled that Down 'N Out wasn't complying with its trademark ruling in favor of In-N-Out and, even though the former plans to appeal the ruling, it must now turn over all physical signage for Down 'N Out to In-N-Out and destroy all digital material for that brand as well.