
The speed of a moving car has become part of the argument in a lawsuit that Buc-ee’s Ltd. has filed in in the Northern District Court of Texas in Dallas against Super Fuels Lombardy LLC, Super Fuels Northgate LLC and Super Fuels St Augustine LLC, alleging trademark infringement.
Buc-ee’s lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal actions the convenience-store and travel center retailer has taken to stop what it considers competitors with logos and business models that too closely resemble its own retail concept.
The Dallas-based defendant in this latest case operates three Super Fuels convenience stores, two in Dallas and one in Irving, Texas. The chain’s logo features a smiling cartoon dog wearing a red cape on a blue circle.
Buc-ee’s well-known logo features a smiling cartoon beaver wearing a red hat on a yellow circle.

The “defendants’ use of the infringing marks is likely to cause confusion among consumers in the relevant market as to the source and origin of defendants’ services,” Buc-ee’s attorneys argue, according to court documents. “Defendants’ use of the infringing marks is likely to cause (to the extent it has not already caused) confusion, mistake and/or deception among consumers in the relevant market as to the source, affiliation and/or origin of defendants’ goods and services.”
Buc-ee’s alleges that Super Fuel’s logo mimics these elements of its own logo through the use of a cartoon animal that resembles a beaver, with similarly shaped eyes, ears and nose and with a similar facial expression; the positioning of that animal on a circular background, also faced toward the right; use of a similar brown color for the animal and a similar red color for its clothing.
“The vast majority of consumers encountering the infringing marks will consist of drivers who are actively operating motor vehicles and are thus incapable of providing anything beyond a brief glance at the infringing marks, which are displayed on the front facade of defendants’ stores and on defendants’ gas station canopies,” Buc-ee’s argue. “Nor would passengers riding in vehicles fare much better, given how little time it generally takes for a vehicle to pass a stationary object, which, depending on the speed at which the vehicle is traveling, can be as little as a fraction of a second.”
It also argues that “consumers viewing the infringing marks from their vehicles will generally be required to do so from a distance, which further limits their ability to meaningfully assess the marks before reaching an initial conclusion as to their source or affiliation. In particular, the positioning of the infringing marks on the gas station canopy over the gasoline pumps even further promotes this confusion.”
Beyond the similarities in the logos, Buc-ee’s also says that Super Fuels has hindered its participation in interstate commerce “by marketing, advertising, offering for sale and/or providing retail store services featuring convenience-store items and gasoline and other related goods and services under the infringing marks.”
Buc-ee’s is seeking statutory damages and to recover actual damages, defendants’ profits attributable to the infringement and triple attorney’s fees, the court documents say.
Eager Legal Beaver
Buc-ee’s has always aggressively defended its brand.
Late last year, Buc-ee’s filed suit against Kansas City, Missouri-based 2 Wiseman Enterprises LLC, dba Duckees Drive Thru, a liquor store in Kimberling City, Missouri, for trademark infringement. The allegedly too-similar logo in this case features a duck.
It recently went after a knockoff in Mexico—a new c-store in Estacion Manuel, Tamaulipas, Mexico, called Luc-ky’s. In 2023, it went after a c-store set to open in Mexico called BUK-II’S in Matamoros, Mexico. In 2018, Buc-ee’s won a legal dispute again Choke Canyon Travel Centers in Atascosa, Texas, over that c-store chain’s similar logo—an alligator. In 2014, Buc-ee’s filed a lawsuit against B&B Grocery, which operated a c-store and Shell gas station in Garner, Texas, called the Frio River Grocery, that used the a beaver in its logo. In 2013, Buc-ee’s filed suit against Chicks, a new c-store in Bryan, Texas, with two chicks on its logo.
“Buc-ee’s has invested heavily in innovation across the company to provide the best quality products and experience for our customers,” Jeff Nadalo general counsel for Buc-ee’s, told CSP. “Buc-ee’s will not be idle spectators while others infringe the intellectual property rights that Buc-ee’s has worked so hard to develop.”
Buc-ee’s is No. 118 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
Founded in 1982, Lake Jackson, Texas-based Buc-ee’s now has 50 stores in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Buc-ee’s will break ground on a new travel center in San Marcos, Texas, on Jan. 29. The company also broke ground on its first Virginia and Mississippi locations earlier this year, and it plans to open stores in new states including Arkansas and Ohio.
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