Why the Silicon Valley Donut War of Stan's vs Randy's & the AMA's 4 P's is about YOUR BUSINESS TOO.
Hello Client, “Autumn leaves must fall” as the 1964 Chad & Jeremysong suggests to this writer – there is a seasonality of our businesses as there is a seasonality in us. Go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The Spring, when we are inspired to start our businesses, to no end. The hard work, the enthusiasm, the natural creativity knows no bounds. What an incredible time!
The Summer, when it all comes together and when everything works, the business thrives. We prosper.
The Fall, when we drill into management, operational efficiency, stability. Satisfaction. Less attentiveness. The business can begin to slip, because we allow it to slip. Maybe to fail.
The Winter, is when we eventually drift into the routine of our businesses. Day, week months go by. Just natural. Inevitable. Competition catches up. The warmth, the fun of Summer exuberance fades.
(The seasons suggest here may happen for you in 2 or maybe 3-year segments, not literally one strict calendar year. Well, for some maybe!)
As we have our own rhythms in our bodies, minds and souls – so do our businesses.
As the song goes, “They say that all good things must end someday” – well sure, but when? That’s up to us. Do we give up and fold, or be re-inspired and visit our business’s marketing Four P’s = PRODUCT, PRICE, PLACE and PROMOTION?
AMA American Marketing Association – The Core Four Ps
See: https://www.ama.org/marketing-
- Product: What the business offers, including physical goods, digital items, or services, focusing on features, quality, branding, and problem-solving value.
- Price: How much money customers pay for the item. It involves profit goals, discounts, and perceived value.
- Place: Where the product is sold and how it gets to the buyer, covering retail stores, online shops, and shipping logistics.
- Promotion: How the company communicates with the public, using advertising, public relations, social media, and sales deals.
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What can 2 long established
California donut shops teach us?
I am talking about the expansion of LA’s iconic Randy’s Donuts, (See: https://randysdonuts.com/), across the street from locally loved for 67 years
Stan’s Donuts in Santa Clara (See https://www.stansdonutshop.
This article certainly is not about each company’s sloppy lack of protection of their intellectual property. Their accountants and attorneys failed them. Simply “piss poor.”
This issue is another story and a half.
TradeMark Express has had countless starving musicians and uber driving clothing startup clients who have shown to know more about the importance of first CLEARING then TRADEMARKING to own their chosen trade names.
We’ve met too many so-called knowledgeable millionaires who think they own their business names merely “because they thought of the name themselves.” NOT.
As to Randy’s Donuts daring expansion into Silicon Valley?
Bad move?
Good move?
Time will tell.
So, I took 2 weeks to write this. I had to go back today August 16 to see the difference with what I witnessed on Sunday morning, August 2 weeks.
The real reason I didn’t write this 2 weeks ago because their trademark situation was almost as convoluted over the decades as I found in my What-A-Burger / Burger King / McDonalds article I wrote June 26, 2024.
See: Whataburger sues What-A-Burger #13. In 1956, What-A-Burger could have trademarked either Burger King or McDonalds names. Which would you have picked? – https://tmexpress.com/
On August 2, I chose to meet my family for coffee instead of finishing this article that morning. Then sure enough, I never had time to get back to this until today.
Autumn may already be setting in around here…
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In any case, Randy’s expansion garnered both local and national coverage.
See:
1) Donut Wars: Iconic Randy’s makes Bay Area debut in Santa Clara across local legacy favorite Stan’s – https://abc7news.com/post/
2) Randy’s Donuts Opens in Santa Clara, Across From Stan’s Donuts, Randy’s Donuts, known for its original location in Southern California with a giant doughnut sign, opened its first Bay Area franchise Friday. – https://www.kqed.org/news/
3) In Santa Clara’s ‘Donut Wars,’ both sides are proving victorious with long lines at newcomer Randy’s and South Bay institution Stan’s –https://www.paloaltoonline.
AUGUST 2, 2026 – SITE VISIT STATS @ 7:50am.
Stan’s Donuts: LINE TO DOOR = 75 YARDS LONG + TIME IN LINE = 45 MINUTES.
Randy’s Donuts: LINE TO DOOR = 25 YARDS LONG + TIME IN LINE = 22 MINUTES.
AUGUST 16, 2026 – SITE VISIT STATS @ 7:26am.
Stan’s Donuts: LINE TO DOOR = 50 YARDS LONG + TIME IN LINE = 30 MINUTES.
Randy’s Donuts: LINE TO DOOR = 0 YARDS LONG + TIME IN LINE = 0 MINUTES.
My opinion.
From Randy’s Donuts perspective, as they are the protagonist aggressor here, there are a LOT of ways to look at this situation. We’ll take it from the idea that Randy’s wanted to expand to the San Francisco Bay Area, where there is a population of 7.8 million people.
MARKETPLACE – Here, in the very spread out Bay Area, (120 x 40 mile area with the SF Bay in the middle), bagel shops are way more popular than donut shops. In Los Angeles, where Randy’s is from, donut shops are located everywhere, but waning in popularity from their heyday in the 20th century. Healthy foods nowadays trump sugary foods. It is a trend.
OFF-SETTING MOVE – Given Stan’s single modest Santa Clara location has been in business since 1959 and is BELOVED in its immediate trade area. Hence you can see by the supportive lines at Stan’s compared to the lack of lines at Randy’s new expansion across the street. IF people wanted to try the new donut in town, this would be the time. Didn’t happen August 2nd or August 16th. Stan’s won the line battle. Hands down.
NOTE that the other Stan’s Donuts in the Chicago area with 16 locations is an offshoot of a Westwood Village area of Los Angeles, CA location, which is now out of business. My girlfriend an I used buy donuts there after going to the movies in the 1980’s.
Different Roots and Ownership
- Santa Clara: Founded in April 1959 by World War II veteran Stanford “Stan” Wittmayer and his wife Tina, this single, cash-only local institution has operated out of the Mariposa Gardens Shopping Center on Homestead Road for decades and is run by the Wittmayer family. [1, 2, 3]
- Chicago: The midwestern chain traces its lineage back to Stan Berman, who opened a famous original 1965 shop in Westwood/Los Angeles before partnering with Chicago baker Rich Labriola in 2014 to expand the brand to Illinois. [1, 2, 3, 4]
BACKFIRING MOVE – IF this was a overly ambitious calculated publicity seeker to juice the marketplace into being psyched into more donut consumption as a precursor to many more store openings by picking on a single location local favorite, THEN it just ain’t going to work. Publicity is too short-lived, too perishable. Randy’s Donuts cannot open enough stores fast enough over such a huge geographic area to make it work. People within a 10-mile radius of Stans Donuts are going to HATE you, as the “lines of loyalty” this month attest.
BETTER MOVE – Randy’s is what Randy’s is: an iconic donut brand. Go to the crowds. Go to the malls. Ride the foot traffic. Ever hear of KISS? As in “Keep It Simple Stupid.” Randy’s Donuts COULD HAVE opened just 2.5 miles away at the Westfield Valley Fair Mall, See: https://www.westfield.
I suggest Randy’s Donuts recently missed the target for one of the 4 P’s – PLACE.
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Here’s a few of my own “dramatic” re-inventive business experiences I’ve had since 1977, I’ll share with you here.
FILM EXPRESS – In 1981 I was the GM of a one-hour photo store in San Diego. The next year, Technicolor jumped into the marketplace and opened a one-hour photo across the street in Pacific Beach. Even though we were just one year old, we withstood their massive budget and onslaught of advertising and fame making color movies. (Yes, black and white movies were still in people’s consciousness in 1982.) We kicked their ass for the next few years until they closed. Our window banner and all print copy insertions that “We accept competitors’ coupons!” was all it took. No need to say it in our county wide TV and radio ads for our 8 locations. We intercepted a LOT of their coupons. An example of tweaking one of the 4 P’s – PROMOTION.
ROOMMATE CONNECTION – One cold San Diego night in the Fall of 1988 I took a dive into our apartment swimming pool and the idea hit me the moment I entered the water. Instead of opening offices every 10-15 miles away from each other to sign up new roommate seeking clients across Orange County feeding into a central office in Costa Mesa via FAX, we could simply accept applications from mailbox store sign-up points and go farther. Within a year, we tossed out the six of the seven $1000 FAX machines, closed 6 Orange County satellite offices and opened 280 mailbox store sign-up-points in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, Reno and Las Vegas. In 1991, when I first met my Wife in San Jose, she thought I had a dollar. I didn’t. But the company was VERY, VERY EFFICIENT. One of the 4 P’s – PLACE.
NAME-IT – In 1994, after a YEAR of trying, with absolutely NO SALES, I placed a call to our consultant Michael Landis to take the web site down. While the phone was ringing, I had the realization that maybe I just wasn’t charging enough. Was $995 for a new name too little? It made sense. By the time Michael answered on the 3rd ring, I asked him, “What he thought about raising the price?” Michael said, “Sure why not!” I suggested $1295, $1495, $1995 and $1999. I chose $1999. Within a week the phone began to ring. Un-fn-believable! People found us valuable, more credible at a higher fee. With the higher fee I was able to hire real linguists instead of trying to work friends for ideas at various Palo Alto parties. Every TradeMark Express client’s name which was BLOCKED now has a good way of developing a new name. I re-gained a few friends. Not all. Another of the 4 P’s – PRICE.
URGENT TRADEMARK – In 2010, hours before my surgery for a blood clot in my leg, I launched Urgent Trademark. We had too many unhappy people tripped up doing their own research result competitive check verifications of all the conflicts and similarities which arose in our legal research reports. They balked at calling one of the trademark attorneys in our network to go over the results. We were so determined to offer a low-price way to get a trademark, in a step-by-step fashion, we were losing the entire marketplace of people who didn’t want to do this needed work. They wanted us to “just do it.” (No infringement with NIKE, as this is merely an article. There is no confusion in the marketplace.) Even though we are a service, the AMA’s definition fits here as a P = PRODUCT.
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So, the moral here is to strive to re-invent your business. Meet or beat your competition. Heed the seasons, the cycles, of your own mental and physical attentiveness and your enterprise’s needs and challenges. The hard part was starting your business. The fun part is tweaking it.
Continually look for ways to improve your businesses 4 P’s – PRODUCT, PLACE, PRICE and PROMOTION.
PS: Be sure not to neglect, to take care of, to protect and to secure your INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. Trademark to own ALL your trade names, logos and slogans. Don’t let someone trademark on top of your IP, thereby limiting your rights in sound, appearance and meaning.
Click on the order link at the top of this page, NOW!
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Thank you, Chris DeMassa, Founder – 650-948-0530
Email: staff@tmexpress.com
Web Site: tmexpress.com
Order: https://www.tmexpress.com/
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Read about phone call spoofing at https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/spoofing.
Nice short video too.
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We have a stunning CYBER SCAMMER first.
Scammer # 326 in our gallery of fraudsters – and counting. 221 have been allayed, somehow, some way. 105 to go.
On Wednesday, June 24 UNITED STATES PATENTS OFFICE created their domain name. See: https://www.whois.com/whois/united]*****]states]*****]patents]*****]office ]*****] co]*****]m.
Curiously, their new .COM web site, (not .GOV web site), rotors over immediately to the normal USPTO web site https://www.uspto.gov/.
Red flag? YES!
On Friday afternoon, June 26 our client filed a for a new $700 ITU Intent-to-Use trademark application at the USPTO, for 2 types of future products.
Within minutes our client received a SPOOF phone call. Caller ID said it was: PATENT&TRADEMARK @ 571-272-1000. See picture above.
If our client had thought fast and searched the phone #, they’d find 571-272-1000 really is the USPTO main phone #. That is the SPOOF. To fool the call recipient.
Then came the authoritative voice, seemingly from the USPTO.
The woman who knew all about the new trademark just filed.
She told our client they needed to do MORE.
$4,000 more for “Global Authority”.
Please see the client’s complaint she wrote to the USPTO on Friday, June 26:
Chris – below is what I filed LAST NIGHT JUNE 26th, AT 4PM EST.
WHAT’S ALSO STRANGE THE TIME STAMP ON MY CALLER ID SAYS 12:18 PM (PST). THAT TIME IS BEFORE I FILED BUT TRUST…..THE CALL ARRIVED MINUTES FOLLOWING MY FILING.
Subject:
ALERT FRAUD CALLER – MY Serial number: 99908441
I CAN NOT BELIEVE THAT minutes AFTER I FILED AND PAID FOR MY TRADEMARK
an aggressive woman called me saying she was assigned my file and she will expedite it all i need to do is explain its usage (unfortunately I did)
She said I needed to file for services. I TOLD her I already paid $700 and I thought that covered goods and services.
She said, I only paid for the GOODS use. SO, SHE NEEDED MY PAYMENT INFORMATION.
She asked where I was going to sell the product and I said initially on-line, she said there are different prices for different outlets. It will cost me more if I intend to sell in retail stores/etc.
She said, after I paid to fully FILE my case, that in order to protect my TM globally it would be an additional $4,000 then she would grant me authority to use the TM next to the brand name
within 24 hours and she would send me confirmation of the call, payment and authorization to use the TM following the brand name.
But the more she talked over my questions I grew suspicious.
She ended by handing up on-me when I said – THIS IS A SCAM. YOU ARE A FRAUD.
CALLER ID DISPLAYED -PATENT & TRADEMARK
from – 571-272-1000
at 12:18 pm (PST)
on JUNE 26, 2026
Earlier today, June 27, I wrote the USPTO too:
USPTO, one of our clients, below, received a cyber scam email
from someone trying to impersonate the USPTO. Please see email she
received TODAY from a domain created at DYNABOT 2 DAYS AGO!
I have reason here to believe the scammers we are all battling
have found a way to hack the USPTO web site in REAL TIME. How else could
they have called her MINUTES after submitting her trademark application
YESTERDAY June 26? Our client’s trademark is TUCK-A-WAY (SN99908441).
However, I am at a loss to explain why the spammer spoof call was received
at 12:18pm PST, while the USPTO time stamp was 12:59pm PST. Client caught
this issue too. See below, please!
TIMELINE
1) Trademark filed at 12:59pm PST. (USING PST. Client lives in Palm Springs. I am in California.) See: https://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn99908441&docId=APP20260626155932&linkId=1#docIndex=0&page=1.
The oddity is the mismatched times.
Does anyone reading this have an explanation for the gap in submission time and a call receive before final payment? I have not been able to verify with the client of she lingered on the USPTO web site before paying for her 2-class trademark.
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We say criminal for FOUR reasons,
1) they do NOT do normal trademark
services AT ALL,
2) they use FAKE verification at verify.me to create FAKE
accounts for their victims so they can control access and communications
with the USPTO,
3) they list their own emails on every application to intercept
communications to the USPTO and control the trademark filing,
4) they FORGE business owner signatures at the USPTO which is a criminal act
punishable with 2 years in jail and $10,000 fine EACH TIME. When the
USPTO discovers each of these fraudulently filed trademarks, they
unilaterally terminate them. No recourse for the business owner.
Just shame as the terminated trademark filing is public record forever.
This is an obvious scam because
1) USPTO Examining Attorneys takes 6-7 months to even get to a new trademark application, NOT MINUTES, NOT DAYS,
2) IF there is an issue, an Office Action is formally sent AND posted on the USPTO web site so it can be verified by the applicant and seen by the rest of the World,
3) the USPTO does NOT CALL people,
4) The USPTO web site ends in .GOV not .COM and
5) there is NOTHING to VERIFY, as the premise of their email falsely claims.
Lastly, #6 trademarks are accomplished on a country-by-country basis, except the 27 countries in the EU and 17 countries in the African Union. There is NO SUCH thing as a “Global trademark”. The USPTO has no jurisdiction to grant trademark anywhere outside the USA. They are a part of the Department of Commerce. In our client’s case her only intention is to sell in the USA. Nowhere else. IF she was to sell elsewhere, that is for her to decide, her attorney, her consultant to advise what fits her business. The USPTO does not give advice, legal or marketing.
$4,000 for a Global trademark” is preposterous, let alone IMPOSSIBLE.
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Yes, there is more.
The next day, Saturday June 27,
our client received this 5:10am PST email:
From: james@united]*****]states]*****]patents]*****]office ]*****] co]*****]m.
Date: June 27, 2026 at 5:10:12 AM PDT
Subject: USPTO TRADEMARK VERIFICATION REQUIRED
Dear [Client’s name here]
Congratulations!
Your trademark application for the mark ” TUCK-A-WAY” has been successfully filed under serial number “99908441“.
Your application is now ready for the verification stage. To proceed, we would like to arrange a brief verification call to confirm the application details and ensure that the review process continues without delay.
To assist with scheduling and coordination, Peter Wilson will be available to help arrange a convenient time for the call.
Contact Details:
Name: Peter Wilson
Contact Number: (571) 207-7263
Appointment Number: 376A
Please contact Peter Wilson at your earliest convenience and provide both your trademark serial number and appointment number when reaching out. This will allow him to locate your file promptly, schedule the verification call, and coordinate the necessary arrangements.
Once your availability has been confirmed, Peter will assist in arranging the session and providing the relevant scheduling information.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Thanks & Regards,
James Hill
Federal Examining Officer
United States Patent & Trademark Office
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Do I need to say more?
SCAM!
Do not fall for “low fee” trademark scams.
Please send us your phony trademark letter, texts and emails. Help us, help you rid the landscape of these cyber criminals.
PS: if you are wondering why the scammer domain had to be broken up, See: james@united]*****]states]*****]patents]*****]office ]*****] co]*****]m, it is because at 1:30am Sunday morning when this article was written and attempted to go out, Constant Contact refused to send it. Apparently, IF we mention a fraudulent web site, in this case Smith and Johnson BOTH Constant Contact and TradeMark Express will be subject to being email backlisted this article, Smith and Johnson are completely removed as they appeared in an earlier article.
Here’s what Shannon Moore found out.
Constant Contact uses automatic safety filters that flag the actual words of known scam websites. So even if you break the URL up with brackets, the system still detects the forbidden text and stops the email from sending.
Also, if you’re copying/pasting from Word, another site, etc., the underlying code is being copied over — always ‘paste in plain text’ or ‘paste without formatting’ — doing so will remove that underlying code.
They recommended hosting an alert on the TME website and linking to that, e.g., “A known predatory trademark scammer is actively targeting businesses with look-alike domains. We have published the full list of these fraudulent websites and how to spot them on our blog. Please view the [Official Trademark Security Alert on Our Website] to protect your company from these unauthorized solicitations.”
AI recommended embedding an image or spelling things out phonetically — not sure if CC would be fine with these but, if you don’t like the above, might be worth a shot.
“A fraudulent entity is sending out fake trademark notices using various look-alike web addresses. To ensure you do not accidentally visit or pay these scammers, we have pictured the specific web addresses they are using below. If you see any of the domains shown in this image, delete the message immediately:”(Insert a screenshot image here showing the list of domains like smithandjohnsoniplaw.com)
“Be on the lookout for fraudulent trademark solicitations using deceptive web addresses. These scammers are combining the names ‘Smith and Johnson’ directly with ‘IP Law’—either smashed together as a single word or separated by a hyphen—and ending in dot-com. Do not open any emails or websites matching this specific word combination.”
—
Kind regards,
Shannon Moore
Lead Trademark Analyst | Trademark Content Strategist
Correspondence via email only: shannon@tmexpress.com
TradeMark Express Blog: https://tmexpress.com/trademark-blog
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonmooresagebright/
650-948-0530
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Thank you, Chris DeMassa, Founder – 650-948-0530
Email: staff@tmexpress.com
Web Site: tmexpress.com
Order: https://www.tmexpress.com/order-my-trademark
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12 Expert Trademark Attorney Network Included.
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisdemassa/
Ask about our $1000 Trademark Challenge.
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