The Holy Donut in Maine Sued Holey Donut Cafe in Oregon
The battle rages on between Maine in Oregon. Usually, the beef is about which Portland is superior. Now the fight has moved to local eateries.
The Holy Donut is well known in Maine for their incredible potato-based donuts with locations in Portland, Scarborough, and Auburn. Over in Oregon, there's an establishment named Holey Donut Cafe, and therein lies the issue.
According to the Bangor Daily News, Oregon's Holey Donut Cafe has received repeated notices from Maine's The Holy Donut from as far back as 2019 informing them of the trademark that was in place and requesting they cease using the similar name.
Fast forward to the present day and since nothing has changed, Holey Donut Cafe has been ordered to appear in court reports Bangor Daily News.
Not wanting to go down the rabbit hole of legal fees the Holey Donut Cafe decided to wave the white flag and change their name to Holey Moley Cafe and Sandwiches.
Fans of Holey Donut Cafe began infiltrating The Holy Donut's Facebook page with criticisms over the trademark issue and accusing them of bullying the Oregon small business.
The Holy Donut released a statement this morning (February 18th) addressing the issue.
Per the statement, what it comes down to is that The Holy Donut is obligated to protect their trademark, otherwise, they will lose it. In previous instances of other businesses having a similar name, they entered into a coexistence agreement which meant that these businesses could keep the similar name as long as they didn't expand to other locations. This agreement was offered to Holey Donut Cafe and a verbal agreement was made to change the name to Donut Hole as they planned to expand. When their end of the deal wasn't held up, The Holy Donut had no choice but to push back legally to protect The Holy Donut trademark.
Read The Holy Donut CEO, Jeff Buckwalter's statement here:
It appears The Holy Donut was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
As Michael Corleone said in The Godfather, "It's not personal. It's strictly business."