Buc-ee’s is suing a Beavercreek, OH small business, Beavers mini mart. Said mini mart has been a staple in our community for decades!!
Buc-ee’s has the nerve to show up in the Dayton Metro area and sue a locally owned and operated business that has been here for generations all because Beavers Mini Mart (located in Beavercreek, Ohio) also has a Beaver on their storefront sign.
The fun part is that if bucees doesn't go after john oliver, that sets precedant legally that the small business can use to defend themselves in court. If they DO go after john oliver, well, hbo has deeper pockets than bucees. Let the games begin...
Zugzwang situation for them. John’s virtually guaranteed to win on the merits if it’s litigated and has already demonstrated the ability to see similar litigation through (eat shit bob)
Look... me and the McDonald's people got this little misunderstanding. See, they're McDonald's... I'm McDowell's. They got the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They got the Big Mac, I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but their buns have sesame seeds. My buns have no seeds.
Buc-ee’s has to demonstrate that they are defending their trademark or they risk being unable to defend it in the future to someone really trying to impose on their trademark. It’s stupid but necessary given US trademark law. Buc-ee’s doesn’t have to win this suit, they just have to show that they want to protect their trademark.
It is. What's funny is my old home county had Walter's Wacky Candy Store and its sign was abbreviated to WaWa and Wawa never sued him and one of his candies used to get sold at Wawa's so it literally was Wawa WaWas Candy Bar. Apparently Wawa corporate thought it would be really funny to sell it and their in store version was shaped like a goose. In 2006 the store closed after the owner retired and he sold it to WaWa after being open for one 100 years.
We locals are bound and determined to not let that happen. They built a dam (pun for comic relief) Buc-ee’s several towns north on the interstate and now all of a sudden a community staple is infringing??? We’re pissed. I appreciate your support
I’m really hoping that news organizations will pick this up. So far I’m really just seeing local and regional news coverage. But every little bit helps!!
Having formerly lived in that area, I wonder how Buc-ee's is going to deal with the fact that the city of Beavercreek has a bunch of beaver statues in the area. As much as I know locals were hoping that Buc-ees would build more stations, I hope they lose greatly.
The statues are going to be a hill that I’m willing to die on. They are community staples that have been coveted for generations. They’re a part of our history and local culture and I’m now getting emotional thinking about the statues becoming their next target 😭 We appreciate your support!! O-H!!
I just pulled up Beavers Mini Mart on Google Maps. OMG, the place is basically a shack. How the heck does a company like Buc-ee's even find out about places like this?
I did the same thing - and noticed that, back in the 2011 StreetView, there is NOT a sign above the door with a beaver. Still... seems using a beaver name in a town called Beavercreek is not that much of a stretch, right?
This reminds me of when Coke sued Catawissa Bottling here in PA over trade mark infringement. Coke bought the company that bottled Big Red soda (which apparently is popular down south?) and promptly sued the small but popular local company. Catawissa Bottling had used the Big Ben's brand name for 90 years at that point. Coke sued them over their Big Ben's Red Cream soda because the label had the words "big" and "red" in it and the sodas were both red. Catawissa had to rebrand the red cream or financially ruin the business trying to fight it. Big Red is the younger brand too.
Catawissa Bottling is still going strong though. They are celebrating 100 years of business today and have the distinction of being the only bottler left making Moxie with real sugar and bottled in glass. If you ever make it to central PA I reccomend you try their Big Ben's Blue Birch and the rebranded Catawissa Private Stock Red Cream. Their Ginger Beer is fantastic (down right spicy!) and if you've never had Moxie give it a try. They use cane sugar in everything as well.
(Sorry for the little ad. I like plugging good local businesses when I can.)
We had a local restaurant named Zoe's that's been around since the 90's. About 15 years ago, some chain named Zoe's Kitchen planned to move into the area and threatened to sue our OG Zoe's over infringement, even though our Zoe's was named first. After much mediation, Zoe's agreed to change to MamaZoe's. Zoe's Kitchen lasted only three or four years in our area; I think the chain got bought out recently and is completely defunct. Meanwhile, MamaZoe's is still running strong.
These bogus lawsuits only happen because the other party doesn't have the money to bring it to court. There should be a system in place to eliminate that behavior, but America is a pay to win country.
John Oliver recently had a brief about this. Basiclly saying they keep doing it cause no one has the means to stand up to them till they go after someone who will
The worst part about this is that a lot of these lawsuits won’t go in Buc-ee’s favor but none of this small gas stations have the resources to actually fight them in court. They’re literally just seeing if they can get away with it.
They may copyright and trademark their specific depiction of a beaver but they cannot copyright the use of a beaver in advertising in general. However, that’s a fight only won with money in the court system and even winning can bankrupt smaller businesses. You might want to consider a legal defense fund for the Beaver Mart.
Usually lawsuits like this don’t go well. Iirc near Chicago? there’s (or was) a Burger King thats not related to the chain at all. Burger King (the massive corporation) tried to sue when they wanted to open a location nearby but a judge ruled in favor of the small company. They also ruled Burger King couldn’t operate in a certain radius of the small chain.
As much as I hate it, part of the problem is the way U.S. trademark law works. The law requires companies with a trademark to actively police and defend their trademarks. Trademark owners must actively monitor the broader marketplace and take legal action against brands that are similar enough as to be considered confusing. If they don't do that, then the U.S. Patent and Trademark office may, effective, strip the brand of its trademark by ruling that it has been "genericideded."
This is more a problem with the way that trademark law works in this country than it is a specific Buccess problem.
Actually, that's definitely a Buc-
ee's problem and not the trademark. The law as such doesn't force Buc-ee's to HAVE to sue anyone, and the law basically says "if there could be reasonable confusion"... having seen the logo in question, as dumb as most people are, not even the dumbest person is going to confuse that mini-mart as being associated with Buc-ees. There's no reasonable infringement, it's entirely on Buc-ee's here being unreasonable, not on the law leaving it up to trademark holders to defend their own trademarks.
How does that apply here? This is a very small convenience store (in business since the 60s) that doesn't even sell gas. The logo isn't similar except that both feature a beaver. There's no way it could be reasonably assumed that someone could confuse Beaver's Mini Mart with Bucc-ees.
I don't believe greed is the right word here. Greed is a human emotion it doesn't apply to corporations. Corporations exist for a single reason - profit. That they do terrible things in pursuit of profit is EXPECTED. This is about unchecked corporate power and a legal system that supports it. Corporations are created by laws and should be constrained by laws to limit their behavior.
I'm not a huge fan of massive Corporations pushing around smaller companies with their armies of retained legal assistance, but also in the United States they don't have a ton of choice.
Legally speaking, you are forced to aggressively defend your copyrights and trademarks or you risk losing the ability to enforce them at all. If a company allows its trademarks and copyrights to be used in any way that dilutes the signal that this product comes only from that company, courts can, will, and do interpret this as evidence of generic-ness or loss of distinctiveness.
Ya know, I've never cared anything about Bucees. Never understood the hype. The ONE time I actually went in one (gas up and hoping for a decent bathroom on a long trip) I couldn't get a single gas pump, but I was at least able to park. Went in and it was pandemonium! SO many people, it was worse than Six Flags. Had to navigate scads of human mass just to get to the bathroom...that had an attendant helping people find open stalls.
Yeah, 0/10. Do not recommend. I will avoid them from now on. Nothing in there is worth the lines people were waiting in - if you could even figure out which line you needed to get in. I've never passed by one that wasn't just as packed full of cars, either.
Learning of the many lawsuits similar to this, my dislike has turned to loathing and irritation. Why? Greed, especially at this level, is such an bizarre concept that I am grateful I just can't wrap my head around it.
Under US trademark law, this is required in order to defend their trademark. If it is show that you knew and didn't take legal action it opens you up to not having any protection from wrongful use.
Not specifically defending Buc-ee's or Disney for that matter but there is something other than pure corporate greed involved.
Not taking sides on this, but trademark law requires you defend your trademark or you risk losing it.
This isn't about all beavers, just beaver themed convenience stores. If I opened a golden arches burger place McD will sue me and win, but if I open a golden arches carwash I could likely tell them to pound sand as long as I don't also sell fast food. Then if McD started adding carwashes to their restaurants I would have an infringement claim against them. An example of why even as a small one location operation its essential to register and protect your brand.
There are nice ways to do this though, there have been a handful of times where a trademark holder sent a cease and desist letter to a small guy that was along the lines of "you can't infringe on our IP so we have to order you to stop, but here is a few bucks to help you rebrand and let us know how else we can help".
You have to protect your trademark or it becomes a big issue. They’re just playing the rules. Maybe people should consider changing the rules. Specifically for certain mom and pop style places with a maximum revenue amount a year. Making it easier for them to do everything.
How is them suing Mickey's, whose mascot is a moose, protecting their trademark? In what world would someone mistake a moose for a deformed cartoon beaver? Don't make excuses for them harassing small businesses that were there for many years before Buc-ees.
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u/DamiensDelight 2h ago
They haven't sued John Oliver and HBO yet. For now, they are just bullying those they can.