The Patent and Trademark Office has rejected the Canton-based chain’s efforts to trademark their ‘Best Coffee in America’ slogan.

The company will not be able to claim exclusive rights to the phrase. As observed by trademark attorney Zick Rubin, ‘Anyone at all can claim that their coffee is the ‘Best Coffee in America, no one takes such a claim literally, and no one company can monopolize the phrase.’

The ruling was not the first trademark defeat for Dunkin’. Earlier this year, the trademark office rejected their effort to trademark the phrase ‘Bagel Bunchkin’ — referring to bite-size bagel pieces — saying it was too close to a supermarket’s brand of traditional bagels, ‘The Bagel Bunch.’

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