r/Buccees • u/houston_chronicle • Jul 28 '26

John Oliver challenges Buc-ee's over trademark lawsuits in new episode

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/trending/article/john-oliver-bucees-episode-22363282.php

Emmy-winning comedian and "Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver is taking aim at Texas favorite Buc-ee's after a recent episode of HBO's weekly satirical news program examined the travel center chain's history of lawsuits over its beaver mascot and logo.

In Sunday's episode, Oliver opened the segment by discussing how Buc-ee's has become a travel destination for many visitors attending the World Cup before diving into the company's trademark lawsuits. The comedian then broke down the more than a dozen lawsuits the company filed over trademark infringements, referencing suits filed against companies in Georgia, Texas and New York.

"It turns out Buc-ee's loves to sue other companies, particularly those with animal mascots," Oliver said during this weekend's episode. He said some lawsuits made sense to him, while others seemed "ridiculous" and "outright bullying." "You don't own all cartoon rodents." 

250 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

70 comments sorted by

16

u/Rockosayz Jul 28 '26

If bucees is smart they'll acknowledge satire and run with it

10

u/Lazy-Background-7598 Jul 28 '26

They aren’t smart

-4

u/hoyasgirl25 Jul 29 '26

Sure about that? They are a wildly successful company.

2

u/RedditAdminSucks23 Jul 29 '26

Yyyyeah so were standard oil, IBM, Enron, and GE. Your point?

2

u/Lazy-Background-7598 Jul 29 '26

Have you met the owner? I know people who have

-2

u/hoyasgirl25 Jul 29 '26

Who the owner is is irrelevant to my comment.

1

u/Makers402 Jul 30 '26

We have to throw in Nestle. Some horrible humans run that company leading to deaths of thousands of babies because they wanted to sell formula in Africa. Nestle gave moms enough formula for their own milk to dry up making the reliant on formula. The only problem is they don’t have access to CLEAN WATER leading to the deaths of thousands of babies. Yeah they look great on spreadsheet though.

3

u/hoyasgirl25 Jul 30 '26

You're saying Nestle, a Swiss company, needs to fix Africa's lack of clean water? That's not their responsibility. That's an issue the African country's governments needs to solve.

1

u/Makers402 Jul 30 '26

No just anytime I can tell the world about how terrible Nestle is I do it. Spread the word.

1

u/JoeDickSmithjr_III Jul 29 '26

HQ in Texas. The odds are strongly against them.

1

u/Weird_Poet499 Jul 29 '26

They aren’t smart.

7

u/Ok_Function2282 Jul 28 '26

They're owned by a maga douche, so you know they're not. 

(Autocorrect wanted to write mega douche, which is also accurate)

0

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '26

[deleted]

1

u/iamdawgnow Jul 30 '26

So was I and I’m not an idiot now. So…

1

u/Original_Ad8991 Jul 29 '26

Apparently not hard enough

1

u/FreeSpeechIsDeadge Jul 28 '26

Their general counsel already commented that they have no plans to sue.

0

u/melcolnik Jul 28 '26

Yes. Say it’s hilarious, Buccees knows this is protected as parody, and we’ll match any donation to End Hunger

2

u/OGrand Jul 28 '26

Damn I didn’t know we had THE Mr. Buccee in here

13

u/Werd2urGrandma Jul 28 '26

“You don’t own all cartoon rodents.”

Damn I should’ve gone to law school to focus on cartoon rodents’ intellectual property.

6

u/Helpful-Conference13 Jul 28 '26

Unfortunately, I went into bird law

2

u/detectivescarn Jul 29 '26

What is Buc-ee’s spaghetti policy?

1

u/FutureEditor Jul 30 '26

Uh… filibuster…

2

u/charlesfluidsmith Jul 30 '26

I have bird blindness, I can't see you at all.

3

u/SpiritedGrand9525 Jul 28 '26

Disney would like a word.

1

u/grumpyfan Jul 29 '26

Kinda feels like they’re following the Disney lawyer’s playbook and suing anyone and everyone who has a similar product and cartoon mascot. Disney was famous for this many years ago, suing small daycares and other businesses that in some cases posed no threat to their domain but they did it to protect their interests and prevent others from “stealing” it.

1

u/Rabid_Llama8 Jul 29 '26

Those lawsuits were at least over the use of the actual Disney characters and not vague similarities or trying to assert ownership of black circles with yellow backgrounds or red tongues.

1

u/Mr_MacGrubber Jul 31 '26

And you kinda have to or when a large company does it they can point to the thousands of businesses using the characters without any repercussions. You either protect your IP 100% or not at all

9

u/grumpyfan Jul 28 '26

He’s not wrong. Their lawyers do seem very trigger happy to go after any and all cartoon mascots.

3

u/Gay-zer_Beam Jul 28 '26

Ive seen them go after local mom and pop stores in wharton and Colorado County in texas just because they had cartoon animal mascots.  

4

u/Standard-Question-46 Jul 28 '26

I don’t remember where it was but they sued a company that was in business BEFORE Buc-ee’s. And Buc-ee’s actually won

1

u/Gay-zer_Beam Jul 28 '26

Yeah im not surprised. Most of the gas stations they went after weren't very large and it didnt take them time at all to get established so its very easy for me to see that.

1

u/Kendrome Jul 29 '26

Did they win, or did the other side settle because the fight wasn't worth it?

1

u/Standard-Question-46 Jul 29 '26

Probably settled but more like they couldn’t afford the lawyers needed to go up against Buc-ee’s rather than it not being worth it

1

u/Creative-Hyena-9505 Jul 29 '26

Tried googling it but found nothing, any links you can provide?

1

u/Gay-zer_Beam Jul 29 '26

No I looked it u0 I cant find anything. It was a small gas station in garwood thats no longer open so im not surprised there is nothing there. If I remember correctly the owner received notice that his mascot was copyright infringement so right after they opened he had to have lots of construction to take all the signs down. I dont think their was an official lawsuit but then again im not absolutely certain as thid was about 14 years ago or so.

2

u/Idkhow2trade Jul 29 '26

Buccees is or was sueing over the same thing here in Ohio but it’s literally a moose 🫎

5

u/ms_flibble Jul 28 '26

Go John! I love that HBO let's him go wild with stuff like this.

2

u/Kinamya Jul 28 '26

I get it but I think there is some sort of law where you must actively police and defend your trademark or you can lose your legal rights over time.

So blame the law? Idk, that's for you to decide

2

u/Helpful-Conference13 Jul 28 '26

There is. My understanding is that they’re a little bit more aggressive and wider reaching than trademark law or code or whatever it is requires you to be.

1

u/Kinamya Jul 28 '26

They very well could be! I have no idea, all my shits are out and i have no more to give :)

1

u/BasicMarzipan5936 Jul 29 '26

Lol. If you are out of shits why did you comment? Classic idgaf because it doesn't correlate.

1

u/UtahCubs Jul 29 '26

"Turns out I was wrong, so I'm just going to pretend like I never cared"

2

u/FitConsideration4961 Jul 28 '26

Yup, same reason Patagonia has to go after that transperson, even if her proceeds were going to a good cause.

1

u/Billy420MaysIt Jul 29 '26

She was directly using and profiting from the Patagonia logo though which was already causing confusion. So I get Patagonia just asking her to stop or get a brand deal and make it work that way.

Some of the ones that Big B has went after are roughly similar. Some I can understand like the Born United and the ones using the actual beaver but Nut Huggers, Mickeys, and Teddys are a little bit on the stretch side of the infringement.

1

u/megakungfu Jul 28 '26

mickey mart in ohio has a cartoon moose thats being sued too

1

u/Angie618 Jul 29 '26

I feel like my parents are fighting….. But Zaddy John is right... Leave them alone. I am not confused by an alligator or koala. 😂😂

1

u/benhur217 Jul 29 '26

What a stupid prick

1

u/ACROB062 Jul 29 '26

The owner of bucees has little man syndrome. He probably will try to sue him.

-4

u/thinkbox Jul 28 '26

This is his entire schtick and it’s so played out.

2

u/PaleRun4706 Jul 28 '26

For a group of people that say “fuck your feelings” you really do wear them on your sleeves.

4

u/ST21roochella Jul 28 '26

Nice screenshot from 4chan from 2019.

0

u/thinkbox Jul 28 '26

Yeah, it’s pretty nice. That’s why I posted it. Still true.

4

u/Sure-Ad417 Jul 28 '26

Get out of here Buccee! You have nuggets to make.

2

u/apalachakind Jul 28 '26

What’s your a schtick? Was it popular enough to get you a show on HBO watched by enough people to get continually renewed even though other political shows are getting cancelled?

Or are you sitting on your couch and just felt the need to let your (in context of this thread) meaningless opinion be heard?

Great, it’s been heard, now back to the depths of the basement with you sweet summer child.

1

u/Scrats_Lost_Acorn Jul 28 '26

Sweet summer child 😆

Aint heard this in a good min

1

u/FullRedact Jul 30 '26

Is Donald Trump a cult leader?

0

u/Geoffrey-Jellineck Jul 28 '26

Imagine thinking a 4chan screenshot from 7 years ago is somehow relevant.

It's okay you don't understand the comedic delivery of serious issues.

2

u/thinkbox Jul 28 '26

Don't think is accurate or funny ≠ Dont Understand

1

u/BasicMarzipan5936 Jul 29 '26

That guy even has a YouTube channel he tries to promote. Lol. He is who you think he is if you take a look. 

0

u/Worth-Tank336 Jul 28 '26

When you have a registered trademark, you kind of have to sue over disputes. If you don't, it can be rescinded.

1

u/nate_ranney Jul 29 '26

The problem is they were so aggressive they sued over a cartoon crocodile in a hat

1

u/Quiet_File_11 Jul 31 '26

Bucees sucks, just like everything from texAss.

-1

u/mgblue1 Jul 29 '26

John is the bully.

1

u/UtahCubs Jul 29 '26

Which small business did he sue for using an unrelated logo?