Buc-ee’s has sued a small mini-mart in Ohio, alleging its cartoon beaver logo is too similar to the popular Texas-based chain’s iconic logo, adding to the various lawsuits the company has filed against small stores with cartoon animal branding despite an HBO show daring it to challenge someone its own size.
Beaver’s Mini Mart in Beavercreek, Ohio, was sued by Buc-ee’s late last month over alleged trademark infringement, according to WLWT. Buc-ee’s claims the store used a smiling cartoon beaver logo and red coloring that closely mimics its famous branding.
Buc-ee’s said it has been using the cartoon beaver logo for more than four decades and has several federal trademark registrations, according to the outlet. The chain also argues that Beaver’s Mini Mart started using the logo after Buc-ee’s had established trademark rights.
The logo could create “confusion among consumers” about whether the store is associated with Buc-ee’s, the company argued in the complaint.
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Buc-ee’s opened its first location in Ohio earlier this year, but Beaver Mini Mart has no gas pumps, is miles from the nearest interstate and was operated before Buc-ee’s expanded into the state.
The mini-mart has been owned by Vik Boparai for more than a decade, years before Buc-ee’s first expanded out of Texas in 2018 and long before it opened its first Ohio store near Dayton in April. Beavers are also popular characters across Beavercreek, as numerous businesses and the local high school feature the rodent as their mascots, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.
“I don’t know why they would sue a small business like mine,” Boparai told the outlet. “I have two kids and this store is how I feed them.”
Beavercreek Councilman Zach Upton also told the outlet that the lawsuit appears to be overreach and customers are unlikely to confuse the two logos.
“Common sense is not prevailing,” Upton said. “I can’t imagine anyone would be confused by the mini mart and Buc-ee’s. It’s not even in the same ballpark.”
The lawsuit comes after comedian John Oliver noted how Buc-ee’s has sued several small stores with cartoon logos, even when they bear very little or no resemblance to Buc-ee’s grinning beaver logo, and dared the chain to take on someone its own size.
On the July 26 episode of “Last Week Tonight,” Oliver urged Buc-ee’s to sue his show rather than small local stores with fewer resources to defend themselves.
“Buc-ee’s loves to sue other companies, particularly those with animal mascots,” Oliver said, pointing out that the chain has filed more than a dozen lawsuits and threatened more.
Oliver said Buc-ee’s has won nearly all the cases because the other companies typically settle and redesign their logos or because “most just don’t have the resources to fight a company this big.”
The comedian cites a legal expert who said Buc-ee’s should be careful with its decision to file so many lawsuits because it may eventually run into one with the resources to fight back.
“And that is where we come in,” Oliver said. “Because, it turns out, we very much have the will to get into a fight with Buc-ee’s.”
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Oliver then reintroduced Mr. Nutterbutter, a 7-foot-tall squirrel mascot originally created for a 2017 segment targeting former coal executive Bob Murray, which sparked an unsuccessful defamation lawsuit against the show and HBO.
The show created a cartoon logo of Mr. Nutterbutter and put the logo on various products, including tumblers, hats, shirts, onesies, mugs and pajamas that are available for purchase for a limited time at Buc-Off.com.
“So, if any prominent gas station chain out there has an issue with our new logo and products and wants to get lawyers involved, then you know what? Bring it the f— on. Although remember, in doing so, you’d be directly taking food out of hungry people’s mouths,” Oliver said, noting that all profits would go to Hunger Free America, a nonprofit group working to end domestic hunger.
Fox Business has reached out to Buc-ee’s for comment.
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