Dunkin' Is Being Sued Over A Sandwich You Probably Can't Get

America might "run on Dunkin'," but lately, Dunkin' has faced a few hurdles.

In case you haven't heard, Dunkin' and Beyond Meat briefly released a plant-based joint menu item — the Beyond Sausage Breakfast Sandwich. What happened to it?

In August 2019, Dunkin' partnered with plant-based food manufacturer Beyond Meat to test out the sandwich in Manhattan. A blog on the Dunkin' website reports that the introduction was a massive success. News of the sandwich quickly spread, and customers nationwide began requesting it in their local Dunkin' locations. Dunkin' officially launched the Beyond Sausage Breakfast Sandwich the following November.

However, shortly after, Dunkin' began quietly pulling the vegetarian sandwich from menus in 2021, per The Food Institute. In June 2021, Dunkin' announced that their Beyond Sausage Breakfast Sandwich would now only be available at select locations in ten Western states via Restaurant Business. 

This sudden revocation is particularly surprising, considering the recent popularity of plant-based meat alternatives in American fast-food franchises. According to CNBC, Beyond Meat collaborated with McDonald's in December 2021 to test-run the McPlant Burger, which enjoyed sales comparable to the Big Mac. Beyond Meat even rolled out the plant-based fried chicken with KFC in recent years, says CNET. The test run of KFC's plant-based chicken did so well that the restaurant chain rolled out the menu item nationwide for a limited time in January.

But now, Dunkin' and Beyond Meat are facing a lawsuit over their limited-release breakfast sandwich.

Pennsylvania-based meat alternative brand Vegadelphia Foods is suing for the alleged theft of their slogan "Great Taste, Plant-Based," reports Reuters. During its initial release, Dunkin' and Beyond Meat used the phrase to promote the Beyond Sausage sandwich. Vegadelphia Foods says it trademarked the slogan "Where Great Taste is Plant-Based" four years before the Dunkin'-Beyond Meat collab in 2019, via Business Insider. Dunkin's failure to immediately issue a public comment on the lawsuit incited further criticism from Vegadelphia. It ultimately requested that Dunkin' and Beyond be legally required to discontinue further use of the slogan and pay an unreleased settlement amount for damages, per Reuters.

Alas, legal trouble is far from over for Dunkin'. In April 2022, a New Jersey customer issued a lawsuit against the coffee giant for selling him a coffee so hot that it caused alleged "permanent injury," says FOX Business. The transaction in question happened in August of 2021; the customer and his wife are suing for negligence.