A popular Melbourne bakery has been forced to change its name following a legal fight with US bakery chain Cinnabon.

Albion-based Cinnabuns owner Mike Ying, who moved to Australia from France, was issued with two separate letters from Cinnabon, claiming his business name had violated a trademark held by the US chain since the 1980s.

Mike said he was disappointed to receive the letter from Cinnabon, saying he had never heard of the company.

“I was in shock. I’m just a small bakery in Albion. I thought the letter may be a joke,” he said.

“I didn’t know this brand when I first opened. I’m French and I’d never heard of the brand before. When I registered my name with ASIC they didn’t decline it.

“I had to fight against a big name. We are just a small family business.”

As part of the cease and desist notice, lawyers for Cinnabon wrote the name Cinnabuns was “aurally, visually and phonetically similar to Cinnabon”. As a result, Mike was forced to completely rebrand the bakery, including the website and all social media channels.

Mike put the call out to his consumers to help choose a new name for the bakery, eventually settling on Simply Mike’s, announcing the change on November 11.

“I didn’t have the energy to fight it [and] I know how expensive lawyers can be. I just thought ‘you know what? I’ll just spend a couple of thousand dollars to rebrand’,” Mike said.

“If I fought it and lost I might lose $10,000, $20,000 or $30,000.”

Mike said the biggest positive had been the response from his community, which had rushed to show their support for the bakery.

“We received hundreds of name suggestions from our community, and Simply Mike’s felt right. It’s personal, it’s proud, and it reflects the craft behind every scroll. This new chapter is about celebrating creativity, flavour and the scrolls that started it all,” he said.

“The cease and desist notice didn’t break us. It only brought us closer to the people who love what we do.”

As part of the rebranding announcement, Simply Mike’s collaborated with Baileys on a Baileys Cinnamon Scroll, which included a one-week product giveaway and saw consumer numbers at the bakery soar.

“We were looking for someone who could capture the essence of Baileys in a way that felt local, playful, and full of character,” Head of Whisky and Liqueurs at Diageo Australia Nishant Samuel said about the collaboration.

“When we heard Mike’s story, we knew we’d found the perfect partner.”