 Australia is the only country in which Burger King does not operate under its own name . When the company set about establishing operations there in 1971 , it found that its business name was already trademarked by a takeaway food shop in Adelaide . As a result , Burger King provided the Australian master franchisee , Jack Cowin , with a list of possible alternative names derived from pre @-@ existing trademarks already registered by Burger King and its then corporate parent Pillsbury , that could be used to name the Australian restaurants . Cowin selected the " Hungry Jack " brand name , one of Pillsbury 's US pancake mixture products , and slightly changed the name to a possessive form by adding an apostrophe " s " forming the new name Hungry Jack 's . 
