Buc-ee’s Gas Station Chain Is Becoming The Monster Energy Of Gas Stations For Trademark Bullying

Trademark

from the buc-off dept

If you’re from Texas or its surrounding states, you’ve probably heard of Buc-ee’s. The gas station and convenience store chain is a staple of the area and has a well-known branded logo that looks like this.

I recently came across a settlement that was the result of a trademark suit Buc-ee’s initiated back in November against Duckees Drive Thru, which is a liquor store in Missouri. The details of the settlement were, as frustratingly usual, not made public. But I would have to damned well hope the settlement wasn’t too much in favor of Buc-ee’s given the details of the case. Liquor stores aren’t gas stations, Buc-ee’s and Duckees aren’t actually all that similar thanks to the distinctive dash in the former’s name, and you couldn’t possibly get me high or drunk enough to make me think this logo looks confusingly similar to Buc-ee’s.

Unless Missouri beavers look different than what I’m used to, that’s a duck. The only settlement that should have occurred would be for Buc-ee’s to “settle” for being told to “duck” all the way off.

It turns out this isn’t some one-off. Apparently anytime Buc-ee’s sees another company out there in even a remotely tangential industry that has an animal cartoon with a yellow circle behind it for a logo, they go full feral beaver over it. There are many, many examples of this.

There is the active suit right now between Buc-ee’s and Choke Canyon, a barbeque joint, with the former arguing this looks too much like a beaver.

Thank god Steve Irwin isn’t alive to see that one.

How about this one, which also ended in a settlement, for a chicken joint?

During the case, which Chicks settled out of court, Buc-ee’s brazenly accused the store of improper use of: “friendly smiling cartoon animals,” “the use of a black circle,” “the use of a yellow background,” “the use of the red-colored cockscomb on the heads of the chickens,” “the prominent use of sharply drawn black edges,” and “the use of six letters in raised and lowered block font in the name.”

Besides the fact that Buc-ee’s accused someone who wasn’t cooking their Trail Boss Habanero Hot Beef Jerky™ of improper use of a chicken’s cockscomb in an official court document, two other takeaways are clear: Buc-ee’s seems to believe that it owns yellow backgrounds and it doesn’t fuck around.

Or how about Irv’s, a restaurant that doesn’t even feature a non-human animal?

“Defendants’ blatant copying of the Beaver Logo shows that Defendants’ actions are willful, knowing, and committed with the intent of benefiting from the goodwill and concept of Buc-ee’s…,” the complaint against Irv’s states, before offering a photo comparison (included below).

“From a distance it is difficult to discern the logo from the logo of Buc-ee’s.”

And yet that one also ended in a settlement.

To be clear, this is pure trademark bullying bullshit. Buc-ee’s is big and these others are small and so they cave. And since nobody in the legal and court systems are willing or capable of doing anything about it, the bullying continues unabated. In a just world, Buc-ee’s would be sanctioned for even wasting the court’s and its victims’ time, money, and energy with this bullshit.

But in lieu of justice, we can at least highlight the company’s bullying ways for the public.

Filed Under: likelihood of confusion, trademark, trademark bullying, yellow
Companies: buc-ee's, chicks, choke canyon, duckees drive thru, irv's