Ah, Buc-ee's, the US gas station titan that wants a monopoly over cute animal logo designs. Over the years, the brand has filed lawsuits against rival gas stations, convenience stores, dog-friendly cafes and, perhaps most bizarrely, underwear brand nut huggers, all for allegedly infringing on its logo design.
Copyright and trademark law exists for good reason and can help a brand protect the value of its brand identity and intellectual property, but it has sometimes felt like Buc-ee's lawyers have been testing how much of the world's fauna they can claim for the brand.
While some of the legal complaints have addressed character designs with strong visual similarities to its own Bucky Beaver mascot, the Texas-based company has also targeted a squirrel, dog, moose and even an alligator. Faced with an expensive lawsuit, small brands often give in and redesign their logo, but the operator of oversized gas stations may have met its match in the most unlikely form – TV host and comedian John Oliver.
Buc-ee's beaver is an important part of its branding, appearing on all kind of merchandise at its massive gas stations. John Oliver claims the company has filed over a dozen lawsuits over logo designs, variously arguing that various other mascots and animal logo designs share elements with its own, whether because of their circular backgrounds, colours, wide eyes, side profiles or headgear.
While Buc-ee’s has been victorious in most of the cases it has brought, often because the other companies settled, Oliver quoted a legal expert’s warning that the chain could eventually come up against someone with the will and the resources to stand their ground. That someone it seems is HBO's Last Week Tonight.
John Oliver closed the Sunday edition of the late-night news satire by laying down a challenge to Buc-ee’s. The show has released a range of merchandise that intentionally riffs on the branding the company is so protective off.
The products all feature a logo inspired Mr. Nutterbutter, a seven-foot tall squirrel that appeared on a 2017 edition of the Last Week Tonight that led to a failed defamation lawsuit from coal executive Bob Murray. The design includes several features likely to rile Bucky Beaver's litigious carers, from a red tongue to the choice to position the character facing towards the right on a yellow circle with a black outline. It's accompanied by a wordmark reading “Buc-Off” in a similar typeface to Buc-ee's.
For a limited time, “Buc-Off” tumblers, hats, shirts, onesies, mugs, pajamas, umbrellas, stickers, socks, and underwear are available at Buc-Off.com, with all profits going to Hunger Free America.
Will Buc-ee sue? I'm not an intellectual property litigator, but it might be a bad move for its brand image considering the that the profits are being donated to charity. Also, Last Week Tonight has the benefit of a defence that most of Buc-ee's usual targets don't have: Buc-Off is clearly a parody. That said, if HBO is selling some of the same kinds of merchandise that Buc-ee's sells that might not give it automatic protection (see the Patagonia logo design lawsuit controversy for another current example) .
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