Buc-ee’s Legal Battles, Birthday Wishes & The Quiz Showdown

Jeremy Piven (0:03)

Hey, it's Jeremy Piven here. Happy birthday, Rizz. I'm really, really glad that you were born.

Rizz (0:08)

Well, it was the last month I went to Buc-ee's for the first time ever. It was okay.

So they sued a South Carolina apparel brand for slapping the Buc-ee's Beaver onto military style gear. I don't know if anybody saw this story or what the gear was, but the federal judge officially signed off on a settlement ending a lawsuit between Buc-ee's and the apparel company Born United. Proving once again that Buc-ee's will aggressively defend its brand at all costs.

Lern (0:58)

However, they did do that with John Oliver because Tim and I bought some Buck Off socks. He did a whole segment on Buc-ee's doing this.

Rizz (1:05)

Well, John Oliver is trying to get Buc-ee's to sue him.

Lern (1:07)

I know. He's raised a ton of money for charity.

Rizz (1:09)

They're not taking the bait though.

Lern (1:10)

They're not because he's doing something good with it because he's actually raising a ton. He's millions of dollars for charities right now. But it's pretty funny that they're not wanting to go after John Oliver.

Rafe (1:19)

They're re-advertising too for them on HBO.

Rizz (1:22)

On HBO, yeah. Well, this little clothing company, Buc-ee's, filed suit after finding out, you know, Born United's selling shirts, shorts and merchandise featuring the federally protected Beaver logo dressed up in military style gear with the words that American tradition printed above it. And Buc-ee's claims they kept selling the unauthorized gear even after getting formal cease and desist letters.

So, Born United has to pay $850,000 in damages for trademark infringement, unfair competition and advertising. Which for a small company, that's, I mean, that's the end. But if you were warned, and I don't blame Buc-ee's for trying to protect their stuff.

Jeremy Piven (2:05)

The squirrel bites, man.

Rizz (2:06)

It's a Beaver.

Jeremy Piven (2:07)

The Beaver bites, man.

Rizz (2:12)

And they are on it. They are on it. Some law professors and critics point out that the trend of Buc-ee's going after smaller businesses, they can't afford a lengthy trial, is kind of rotten.

And that was John Oliver's day.

Lern (2:28)

That was John Oliver's whole episode was about like these little itty bitty bars that, like that have a Beaver mascot in their town because they've been the Beavers since the 60s or whatever. That is rotten.

Rafe (2:39)

Yeah, he didn't do it as a, it was like frivolous lawsuits, right?

Lern (2:42)

Yeah.

Rafe (2:43)

He did it as like a take on somebody that's got the money to fight you, but they didn't take the bait.

Jeremy Piven (2:50)

Oh, he's doing it against Big Beaver?

Rizz (2:52)

He's doing it as he's trolling them.

Rafe (2:54)

He's trolling the Beavers.

Jeremy Piven (2:55)

He's against Big Beaver.

Lern (2:56)

And honestly, it was very informative and it lit me up in a way where I'm like, oh, I had no idea Buc-ee's was this way.

Jeremy Piven (3:01)

I mean, I guess Big Beaver isn't good for anybody.

Rizz (3:04)

Yeah, but if there's a company that is blatantly ripping off the logo.

Lern (3:07)

Sure, I understand that. I mean, we deal with that at Casey all the time, which it's funny because Casey ripped off the blonde one pig head rings out to get Sweet Meat the Pig for our iconic call letters. Now everybody knows.

And now people like Wilco tried to use, you know, the Sweet Meat the Pig logo for one of their shirts at Lou Fest one time. We had to do a cease and desist to that. It's crazy. But we didn't like, but then there's people out here using Sweet Meat for God only knows what. And we're just like, whatever. We're not going to like Roy in O'Fallon. We're not going to take him out for his Pinterest business or whatever.

Rizz (3:41)

So you think?

Lern (3:42)

We just won't. It's like, whatever.

Rizz (3:45)

No, that's not up to you. It's up to corporate.

Lern (3:47)

That's true. They don't hear about it.

Rizz (3:49)

Don't knock him out. Yeah, I guess John Oliver launched a parody line called Buck Off, featuring a squirrel named Mr. Nutterbutter. Daring Buc-ees to sue him.

So I guess he talked about Buc-ees aggressively suing companies and they have not taken the bait. So the store remains open to raise money for a hunger free America. So go buy some of that John Oliver stuff.

Lern (4:14)

We got our stocks in the mail literally last week.

Rizz (4:16)

All right. Let's give away some stuff.

The Rizzuto Show.