Buc-ee’s goes beast mode on trademark protection

We thought the only angry beavers were Norbert and Daggett, but it might be time to add Buc-ee to the list. The convenience mart-slash-gas station chain based in Texas —which recently thrilled international World Cup fans—has been generating a lot of attention for a series of lawsuits it’s filed regarding alleged trademark infringement on its beloved buck-toothed boi.Beaver says ‘leave it’On July 26, John Oliver dedicated a segment of Last Week Tonight to the barrage of lawsuits Buc-ee’s has lodged against smaller businesses. Ranked in order from “totally plausible” to “huh,” some of these include:Suing the clothing brand Born United for an apparel line featuring a beaver strikingly similar to the Buc-ee’s mascot carrying an automatic weapon. The brand pulled the offending products from its site.A dog park in Missouri called Barc-ee’s, which shut down as a result of the lawsuit.Choke Canyon Bar-B-Q, a San Antonio, TX-based restaurant chain with a circular logo featuring a cartoon alligator. A jury in Houston, TX, ruled it was too similar to Buc-ee’s.The suit that may have garnered the most negative PR, though, is the one it lodged against the Mickey’s convenience store chain in Ohio with 42 locations:Mickey’s has been operating since 1982, the same year the first Buc-ee’s opened in Clute, TX.The Ohio chain’s logo boasts a cartoon moose, which has apparently coexisted with the Buc-ee’s beaver in the convenience-mart-sphere for 35 years without a prior dust-up.But in February of this year, two months before Buc-ee’s opened its first Ohio location, Team Beaver sued Mickey’s, saying that its moose was too similar because it also featured a “cartoon animal facing right with wide eyes and a smile.”When asked about the case by the Wall Street Journal, a Buc-ee’s representative said the company doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.Zoom out: The governor of Ohio wants Buc-ee’s to let it be…aver, and thinks it should drop the suit. Mickey’s CEO said in a statement, “We intend to move forward as the Mickey’s you’ve always known…we aren’t going anywhere.” However, the case is still pending, and a settlement conference is scheduled for Sept. 9.—HVL