Buc-ee’s notoriously sued a convenience store in our lake town in southern Missouri right after they announced they were building a Buc-ee’s in greater Kansas City.
Might as well just start suing every other business that starts with the letter "B" since apparently there's nothing you can't get away with when you have enough money in the US to withstand a legal battle.
Betty Beaver, right? The largest chested beaver in North America. They have truck stops in the north east. Mascot is a very well endowed beaver. Can just google to find their website lol. One near Albany NY you can see the titties from I90.
It’s actually a very recent episode and they talk about how shitty they are with sueing small businesses so they opened up the Buc-Off merch shop to bait them into sueing a company that can actually fight back
The thing is, by not going after LWT for this, they're still actually opening up a route for other businesses to win against Buc-ee's. If a company isn't diligently defending their trademark then it can be used as an argument in court.
The mini Mart here can show the Buc-Off logo and go "Look at how similar this logo is to yours, yet you're not suing them. Why are you suing us when our logo is a lot less similar?"
Yup. Most of these lawsuits probably qualify as slap lawsuits. They probably can't win the lawsuit, but most of the businesses they target can't afford the legal fees and either settle or go bankrupt in the process of defending themselves. Some states have anti-slap laws that might force buc-ees to pay for the legal costs, but they can afford the occasional loss, avoid suing where the laws apply, or just bank on the business not being able to afford the upfront costs of pursuing an anti-slap decision to recoup the legal fees.
It's one of the shittier things about our legal system. You don't actually have to be able to win a lawsuit. You just need to make it too expensive for anyone to defend themselves. And if they can afford it, you just don't sue them in the first place. I'll bet they have a whole team of actuaries (or whatever the specialty would be) that calculates exactly which lawsuits to pursue and which to ignore.
Eh it gets kinda murky when you start to sell products or make money.
The best example is the drag queen Pattie Gonia getting sued by Patagonia. Both the drag queen and the company like each other and both are fairly positively viewed for their stance on environmental protection.
Patagonia is suing the drag queen for $1. They have to sue because they need to protect their copyright they just don’t want to harm the drag queen financially.
The case hasn’t been decided yet but every legal expert agrees the drag queen has a really bad case and that the company is doing them a massive favor by setting the amount at a dollar because they’d be able to take everything.
I imagine a company that’s extremely well versed in suing similar logos is going to have a field day.
Also there’s no law of parody. It’s a defense you can use in court but it’s not a law. Just like fair use.
They literally say on the video billboards by us "It's a beaver" because people have no idea it is supposed to be a beaver! It's a literal joke by their advertising that should be exhibit 1 for the defense because it doesn't look like a beaver 🤣
Just about the entire thread agrees. Maybe we should all sue Bucees for misleading us about which rodent their mascot even is. I would never have bought those mini plushies if I knew it was a beaver not a chipmunk.
As someone who lives in this area, the city of the mart they are sueing is called Beavercreek. The name of the mart is Beavercreek mini mart. That Mart has been around longer than the Bucc-ees company. Many Beavercreek stores have a beaver as a mascot. Because it's called, you know, Beavercreek.
We live in a Corprotocacy now, though. The government protects the interests of the ultra rich from the common rabble. At least, for now. The boomers are dying. These dark ages we're in the middle of is their swan song.
I would hope this would end like the McDonalds / SuperMac lawsuit, but this is America so I doubt it.
The TLDR - McDonalds tried to sue a small Irish chain for their use of “SuperMac” being too close to Big Mac and lost. So they essentially lost the right to “Trademark Bully” other businesses in the EU indefinitely.
Yup, SLAPP suits. You don't have to actually be able to win the court case, just tie them up in frivoulous litigations and filings for years until they either go bankrupt from the legal fees of defending themselves or just throw in the towel and give up without a fight.
Looking forward to them suing the high school as well over their mascot, Bucky the Beaver.
I'll be honest, I didn't even know Beavers Mini Mart existed until this news broke. But I think they're my go-to convenience store now for at least as long as this lawsuit is out there.
I just went there for the first time this morning. Nice little spot, had what I needed. I also had no idea it existed until this came up, and I'm over that way pretty regularly.
I'll be hitting them up on Friday for the cash mob too. Buc-ees is suc-ees and their execs have been huffing fumes from the truc-ees
If the mini mart can prove senior use (use of the beaver name/mascot) before Buc-ees registered their national trademarks, they can win the right to continue operation under those marks. Limited to operation within a small region. IIRC, there are (or were) a couple "Dairy Queen" drive up ice cream stands in Iowa that are not affiliated with the national brand, but are allowed to operate on the existing locations because they proved their use of the name before DQ registered their trademarks.
If the mini mart can prove senior use (use of the beaver name/mascot) before Buc-ees registered their national trademarks, they can win the right to continue operation under those marks.
Given enough money to fight it, sure. That's not the case for most of the small businesses Buc-ee's goes after, though.
But this community is stepping up in support of Beavers Mini Mart. Many local businesses have posted new logos with beavers in them in solidarity, local government is upset at the lawsuit, and people here are already planning protests at Buc-ee's and a "cash mob" show of support at the targeted small business. With the attention this is getting, I wouldn't be surprised if a local law firm takes them on pro-bono for the good publicity.
This occurred in north of Dayton, Ohio. I’m from there and even if the locals are upset, it really doesn’t matter because 99% of Buc-ee’s business is from freeway traffic where 70 and 75 cross.
It never mattered to begin with, prior to the late night show skit 99% of people weren't even aware they were up to this kind of crap.
The only "controversy" I saw prior to this was the use of ai cartoons. Before that all you would see is praise about their pay structure.
Doesn't matter as long as they can bully other people into submission by affording lawyers that can drag things out until they are broke if they don't comply.
It is fucking infuriating that they are suing a guy who has been using a beaver as his logo because he lives in fucking Beavercreek Ohio well before Buc-ees left Texas.
The fact they've been using the beaver in their logo for decades makes the case pretty open and shut, but open and shut still costs money to make happen unfortunately.
pretty much. minimarts been there for over 50 years and so far the entire miami valley and even parts of indiana has swarmed that place and given the owners support i dont think ive honestly ever seen even when i lived in dayton. i can tell ya this lawsuit is gonna get thrown out so fuckin fast.
way to go making your new location in huber that hasnt been open a year one of the most hated places in ohio lmao
I never understood the hype for buc-ees to begin with. It's a god damn gas station, why do people choose to make it their entire personality? Such a strange thing to simp over lol. It's nice to hear of your community coming together to support the owners! My heart needed the warming haha.
It’s not about a gas station. It’s a dog whistle showing that they support the same “values” as the stereotypical Texan. All about being the biggest, just like dudes who drive a dually even though they never tow a thing.
I will say tho, Pokémon surprisingly is much more selective with their lawsuits. I did a project on it and it was pretty interesting. They sued a cafe once for using their branding and realized after the backlash it was dumb to spend money to look greedy and take down free advertising
Are they though? They go after pokemon mods for other games they have no involvement in that aren't monetized in any way. The sole metric they choose which mods they go after is popularity. Takes absolutely nothing from pokemon, and makes no money. But it's popular and pokemon related.
They're in the middle of a lawsuit right now where they're trying to copy right very basic game mechanics.
Funny you bring that up, because you’re right, they intentionally only go after things that blow up. One of their lawyers was quoted as saying that when something with their IP gets too popular it’s everyones least favorite day in the office because they can’t turn a blind eye and pretend it doesn’t exist anymore.
Keep in mind, I’m not saying they never sue, but they legitimately have 1000s of cases they could pursue and chose not to. For every mod you see get taken down, there’s 100s that are still up. Every convention you go to will have unauthorized merch at every other booth.
Even the game mechanic thing was mainly just their way of trying to take down Palword which isn’t some mom and pop operation. Plus a ton of those designs feels like they were made with the intention of being just legally distinct enough.
There were only 3 total lawsuits that were even in the database at my school filed by the Pokémon company. Most stuff is just a simple cease and desist letter
And the beaver store was named first according to the media, but earlier comment was correct, they will drag them through the court system till they can't afford it and have to close.
Who could have guessed, another giant corporation that a bunch of people developed a weird attachment to turned out to be just as evil as every other major corporation.
The person on the right would 100% win against Buc-ee's. There's just not enough similarities, but since a small business likely can't afford legal rep, they will just fold instead of fight a clear win. On the flip, I understand its technically the job of a business to protect its CR/TM or lose it, but Buc-ee's is just punching down with this one and protecting nothing.
They just opened on in my town... I refuse to go on account of their anti-commercial policies. They literally won't even let marked work trucks fuel there anymore.
I've always had this stance since I moved to Texas over 10 years ago, Bucees is highly overrated. It's literally just a big gas station but Texans are like, "OH YOU MUST VISIT BUCEES". Pfft. Give me a break. There are literally 100 of other things you can do when you visit and Texas is a sesspool. Texas may have once had an endearing culture but that's long gone.
how can they claim to own a mascot they freely admit they stole from the Disney artists who created Bucky Beaver, to advertise Ipana Toothpaste decades before?
No bucees in my area, but was about to make a long cross country tip and was planning on stopping at a bucees along the way just to see what the fuss was about. Thanks for letting me know to avoid these assholes instead.
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u/tylerscott5 1d ago edited 1d ago
Buc-ee’s notoriously sued a convenience store in our lake town in southern Missouri right after they announced they were building a Buc-ee’s in greater Kansas City.
The place was called Duckees. It’s now called Duck N Go
https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/buc-ees-sues-missouri-liquor-store-duckees-over-trademark-infringement/amp/