Buc-ee's Mascot Lawsuit Comes to Quiet End

LAKE JACKSON, Texas — Five months after Buc-ee's Ltd. took legal steps to protect its beaver mascot, a Texas judge has dismissed the lawsuit.

Buc-ee's filed a lawsuit July 3 in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas against B&B Grocery Inc. and Anica B. Jordan, both individually and as a member of Austin Logo Designs LLC, over its registered beaver logo, as CSNews Online previously reported.

According to the complaint , Buc-ee's uses a distinct font, color scheme and mascot on logos for its 28-store chain — a design that was registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on May 28, 2007. However, B&B Grocery operates a store in Garner, Texas, called the Frio River Grocery, which uses the "Frio Beaver" in its logo.

Soon after Buc-ee's initiated legal action, Frio River Grocery complied with the Buc-ee's camp and took down all of its suspect signage and promotional materials, according to Lake Jackson-based attorneys for Buc-ee's, H. Tracy Richardson III and Jeff Nadalo.

"We got everything we asked for and they complied. The Frio Beaver is no more," Richardson told the Houston Chronicle. "We notified the court that we resolved it between ourselves, and the other side never filed an answer to our suit."

According to the newspaper, planned meetings in October and November never occurred and a judge dismissed the case.

Richardson told the newspaper that Frio River Grocery representatives have sent him almost every piece of the materials they had in their possession with the beaver-style logo. These materials are in the process of being destroyed.