Rival doughnut shops fight over Maâs Donuts name
A bitter battle has stores in Middletown, R.I., and New Bedford claiming the brand
By Brian Amaral Globe Staff,Updated May 10, 2021, 10:39 a.m.
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A sign for Ma s Donuts on Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford, in 2016.
PROVIDENCE â The dispute has gotten caustic: Fake Yelp reviews alleging mold and cockroaches. Anonymous phone calls that are so nasty they canât even be described in private without blushing. The subject of talk-radio banter and a cease-and-desist letter.
Maâs Donuts and More in Middletown, R.I., just wants people to know theyâre not thieves. The Maâs Donuts and Coffee shop in New Bedford, Mass., just wants to reopen. Everyone is exasperated over three little letters and an apostrophe.
May 9, 2021
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (
WBZ NewsRadio) Two donut shops along the South Coast are battling after a trademark dispute not over a secret recipe, but rather, over a name. Ma s Donuts of New Bedford had been around for 61 years when its owners, the Lemieux family, decided to close down in 2016. Upon taking the steps to reopen in February, the family said it discovered that the trademark for their name had already been taken by a Middletown, Rhode Island business.
A search of the U.S. Trademark database confirmed that Ma s Donuts and more had been bought in 2017 by Leite Donuts, Inc.