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College Dropout is a burger chain in Melbourne, Australia.[1][2][3][4]
The restaurant is known, in-part, for having made international headlines after being unsuccessfully sued by the American musician Kanye West for intellectual property infringement.[5][2][6]
It was initially named for West's album The College Dropout without his permission or endorsement. Initially, the restaurant also included the Dropout Bear as a mascot, and had burgers named for other things in West's career.
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The restaurant debuted in Ivanhoe, Victoria.[2] It later opened a location on the CBD campus of RMIT University.[7] It was opened by Mark Elkhouri, also responsible for the Melbourne dessert chain 'Nuts-about-tella'.[8]
Initially, the burger restaurant was heavily styled based on the music career of Kanye West. Menu items at the restaurant were named for things associated with West; such as songs, albums or lyrics. Examples included the Graduation which was essentially a classic smashed beef burger, the "Gold Digger", which was a fried chicken burger, and a breakfast burger named the "Good Morning".[1][9]
The aesthetics of the restaurant also borrowed heavily from Kanye West's intellectual property. Signage of the Ivanhoe location included images resembling Dropout Bear, West's mascot.[2] None of the restaurant's reliance upon West's intellectual property occurred with his permission or endorsement.[2]
In 2022 the restaurant made international headlines after it was sued by Kanye West. Reportedly, the rapper followed the restaurant through its stories on Instagram, which the restaurant owner mistook as West's approval for the restaurant.[10][11][12] Later, West contacted the owner and sued the restaurant.[1] The restaurant changed its logo and the names of its burgers after being contacted by West, but continued to trade under the same name.[2]
The basis of the lawsuit was that Elkhouri had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by falsely associating himself with Ye and his brand.[Note 1] In 2023 the case was dismissed by Justice Shaun McElwaine, because Ye and his lawyers had failed to comply with Australian Federal Court rules of procedure.[2][13][3] The restaurant was represented by Craig Smith SC.[3] In April 2023 the owner of the restaurant flew to the US to pursue West for legal damages.[14]
After the lawsuit, the names of the burgers were renamed to celebrities that had dropped out of college. Examples include the "Zucker burg", and other burgers named for Bill Gates, Brad Pitt, and Steve Jobs.[10][13]
On their website recently, it looks like they have gone back to renaming their burgers after Kanye songs and other things related to him, as such as "Gorgeous", or "Famous".[citation needed]
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- 'Personality Rights' do not exist as a form of intellectual property in Australia. Celebrities therefore need to rely upon 'misleading and deceptive conduct' as a basis for protecting their image and likeness
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