SCARBOROUGH, Maine — The Holy Donut, Maine's staple, handmade potato doughnut shop has won a lawsuit over an Oregon bakery with a similar name.
The Herald and News in Klamath Falls, Oregon, reported Tuesday that a local doughnut shop in their area, named Holey Donut, was served a lawsuit by The Holy Donut over the summer.
Michele and Chris Newton, owners of the Oregon eatery, were surprised that a bakery more than 3,000 miles away, on the other coast, would take them to court.
The Newtons said they first heard from the Maine company about a year ago.
Holy Donut CEO Jeff Buckwalter told the Bangor Daily News that he initially offered to let them keep the name if they promised not to open a second location.
When the Newtons added a food truck to their business, they found out that they were being sued in federal court.
After that request and several other attempts to communicate were ignored, according to Buckwalter, he decided he had no other option than to turn to the courts. He reasoned that his company invested a lot of time and money establishing its Holy Donut brand.
Jeff Buckwalter, CEO of The Holy Donut, released a statement saying, “We trademarked our company name to protect the brand we are building as many businesses do. One of the realities of owning a trademark is that you are bound and obligated to defend it. If you choose not to, you will lose your rights to it.”
It’s not the first time Buckwalter has had to defend the company name, according to him. He had two other situations with similar-sounding donut brands in Arizona and Hawaii. Both backed down.
The Newton’s said they are a small family-run business that has just been getting by since the pandemic began and when they were told it could cost from $5,000 to $10,000 to fight this in court, they decided to give up.
Nervous about losing and legal fees, the Newtons decided to change their name.
They changed their name to Holey Moley Cafe and Sandwiches. Along with the lengthened name, it also will feature a longer menu.
“You win, we’ll stop using the name,” Michele Newton said. “And so we did. In fact, all of our signage has been taken off the building. It’s actually blank right now while we try and think of a name. You know, this morning we answered the phone and I wasn’t sure what to say. I didn’t want to say, 'hello, Holey Donut' because we gave in.”
Buckwalter also said in his statement, “Our trademark covers our logo design as well as several phonetically similar versions of holy donut including Holey.”
Buckwalter said he plans to expand and a national push is not off the table.