The beaver may have gone too far this time.
I’m going to start this out by admitting: I love Buc-ee’s. And if you’ve been to one of their monstrous gas stations, you probably understand why.
To call Buc-ee’s a gas station feels like a severe understatement, because their massive stores the size of a Walmart boast the cleanest bathrooms you’ll find and have everything from fresh brisket and BBQ to an entire wall of beef jerky, a bakery, fresh fudge, household decorations, and an entire line of merchandise emblazoned with their mascot, Bucky the Beaver. More on him soon.
So yeah, I’m a fan of Buc-ee’s. I even have a Buc-ee’s tumbler and hoodie, and I can’t pass up one of their stores without stopping whenever I’m on a road trip.
But even I can’t defend this one.
Buc-ee’s was founded in 1982, but until 2018 was located only in their home state of Texas. Their first store outside of Texas opened in Baldwin County, Alabama (which is along the Gulf Coast) in 2018, following it up with a location in Georgia in 2020.
Since then, the chain has been rapidly expanding across the United States, and now has 56 stores in 13 different states.
With that expansion though, Buc-ee’s has also been notoriously litigious in protecting its intellectual property, filing a number of lawsuits over the past few years accusing small businesses of trademark infringement. In one case, the gas station chain won a lawsuit against a Texas barbeque restaurant after a jury (somehow) found that the restaurant’s logo – which featured a cartoon alligator – was too similar to Buc-ee’s cartoon beaver.
Comedian John Oliver even took aim at Buc-ee’s for their aggressive filing of trademark lawsuits on his show, Last Week Tonight, where he unveiled his own merch and dared the gas station chain to sue him over it.
Instead of suing the television host though, Buc-ee’s has filed a lawsuit against a small mom-and-pop convenience store in Ohio that has the community outraged and vowing to boycott their mega-stores.
The store at issue is called Beaver’s Mini Mart and is located in – wait for it – Beavercreek, Ohio. So you can probably guess what their logo is: A beaver, just like every other business in BEAVERCREEK, Ohio. Even their high school’s mascot is a Beaver (which looks suspiciously like the Oregon State logo, but that’s neither here nor there).
Anyway, Buc-ee’s recently opened their first Ohio location in Huber Heights back in April, and the store is only about a 20 minute drive from Beaver’s Mini Mart. So the gas station behemoth filed a lawsuit against Beaver’s Mini Mart, claiming that the convenience store’s beaver logo infringes on their trademark because it features “wide eyes and a smile” while also using the color red. I guess any smiling animal is off limits, in Buc-ee’s opinion.
According to Buc-ee’s, the mini mart’s logo is “likely to cause confusion among consumers.”
“Consumers are likely to perceive a connection or association as to the source, sponsorship, or affiliation of the parties’ products and services, when in fact none exists, given the similarity of the parties’ logos, trade channels, and consumer bases.”
Well the Beavercreek community didn’t take kindly to a large corporation attempting to bully the mom-and-pop business, which doesn’t have gas pumps and wouldn’t be confused with Buc-ee’s by any rational person (or really any irrational person either).
The owner of Beaver’s Mini Mart says he bought the store over a decade ago – long before Buc-ee’s opened their first location in Ohio:
“We created Beavers Mini Mart to represent our connection to this community and the city we proudly serve-Beavercreek. This lawsuit is unfair, and we believe small businesses should be able to operate without being bullied by large corporations. We are standing up for our rights and will fight this lawsuit all the way.”
According to Google Maps, the market has been using their current beaver logo since at least 2019 – long before Buc-ee’s opened their first location in Ohio. In fact, it’s probably fair to say that most people outside of Texas had never heard of Buc-ee’s back in 2019, given that their only location outside of the Lone Star State was on the Gulf Coast in Alabama. I know I had never heard of them at that point, and I live closer to Texas (and Alabama) than the folks in Beavercreek, Ohio.
Well the community isn’t taking kindly to the corporation attempting to bully one of their own, and the owner says that the store has experienced increased traffic since the lawsuit became public. There’s even a movement on Facebook encouraging locals to support the small business this Friday, and the owner is vowing to fight back against the corporate giant.
And look, I get that a company has to protect their trademark or risk losing protection. But if they really think the small family business is infringing on their trademark (which honestly, I don’t see how they can really believe that), the right thing to do here is to go to Beaver’s Mini Market and give them a license to use the trademark. Work with the communities you’re trying to serve, not against them.
There’s also the fact that the beaver is pretty ubiquitous in a town named Beavercreek, Ohio. If Buc-ee’s decides to go after every small business in the town that’s using a beaver in their logo, there are going to be a lot of mom-and-pop businesses that are shut down by a giant corporation.
Not a great look. The beaver needs to stand down on this one and focus on more important issues.
