A Live Oak man accused of selling counterfeit Buc-ee's merchandise online has settled his federal trademark case with the Texas travel-center giant, closing out a legal dispute that began with stickers, bandannas and flags bearing the company's beaver mascot. Buc-ee's and Kingsley Blancher agreed that each side would bear its own costs, and the settlement agreement included no disclosed details.
Buc-ee's filed the lawsuit in federal court in San Antonio in May 2025, initially identifying the defendant only as John Doe doing business as Crab.Rangoons2, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The company alleged that the seller had sold stickers, flags and bandannas featuring its beaver mascot on Etsy and Shopify, with the merchandise promoted on Instagram, which is owned by Meta Platforms. Buc-ee's sought unspecified damages for counterfeiting, infringement, unfair competition and unjust enrichment, and asked for tripled damages, the paper reported.
Some of the allegedly infringing items went well beyond simple logo knockoffs. Buc-ee's alleged that Blancher's bandannas referenced the chain's famous brisket, with headwear reading “fresh brisket on the board headband,” a play on the kaffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men. According to the Express-News, Crab.Rangoons's Instagram page displayed the beaver mascot wearing a kaffiyeh, and other stickers carried messages apparently written in Persian, including phrases translating to “there is no god, god, Muhammad is the messenger of god” and references to jihad, tawhid — the Islamic concept of the oneness of God — and “La ilaha illallah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”
Tracking Down an Anonymous Online Seller
Because Buc-ee's initially only knew its target by an online alias, the company sought court authority to subpoena Shopify, Etsy and Meta Platforms to uncover the seller's real identity. That effort led Buc-ee's to add Kingsley Blancher's name to an amended version of the lawsuit in November, per the Express-News's reporting. The defendant did not respond to a message from the Express-News, though the allegedly offending merchandise appeared to have been taken down after the paper reached out through Crab Rangoons's Shopify page.
Blancher denied Buc-ee's allegations and offered defenses including that his merchandise was unlikely to confuse consumers with genuine Buc-ee's products, the newspaper reported. He is represented by San Antonio lawyer Robert McRae, while Buc-ee's is represented by Austin attorney Alexandra Bistline. The two sides engaged in initial settlement discussions after the suit was filed, then continued negotiations in the months that followed, exchanging written settlement offers in April before finally reaching and finalizing an agreement, according to the same account.
Part of a Broader Enforcement Pattern
The Live Oak case is one thread in a much larger legal campaign. Buc-ee's has waged numerous trademark fights to protect its beaver brand, and court filings show the company filed simultaneous suits in May 2025 against several other independent online sellers, including Born United, Owl & Anchor and Prometheus Esoterica, according to CSP Daily News. That systematic sweep against small merchandise vendors set the template for how the company has continued to operate.
Prometheus Esoterica, a Florida oddities boutique, later settled its own case with Buc-ee's, agreeing to a permanent injunction and the destruction of unsold inventory featuring goth and Krampus parodies of the beaver logo, Hoodline previously reported. Buc-ee's legal reach isn't limited to beavers, either — the company sued northern Ohio chain Mickey's in February 2026 over its “Mickey the Moose” logo, arguing the cartoon moose set against a red hexagon infringed its brand identity, as reported by MediaPost.
Ohio Backlash Tests the Company's Strategy
Buc-ee's most contentious recent fight has unfolded in Ohio, where it sued an Ohio convenience store in July 2026, alleging the store's cartoon beaver mascot too closely resembles its own furry-faced logo. The target, Beaver's Mini Mart, is a single-location, family-owned carryout in Beavercreek that operates without gas pumps and predates Buc-ee's arrival in the state by more than a decade, according to First Coast News. Buc-ee's said in a statement that it attempts multiple written notices via certified mail and in-person deliveries before resorting to federal lawsuits, noting it first contacted the mini-mart months before filing, per 10TV.
The Ohio suit triggered visible political blowback. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine publicly called on Buc-ee's to drop the case, while the City of Beavercreek passed a resolution recognizing the beaver as part of its local civic history, according to AP News, which noted that #boycottbucees campaigns trended on social media following the filing. Hoodline reported on the original lawsuit against the Beavercreek store when it was first filed.
John Oliver's Satirical Fundraiser
The company's aggressive posture has also drawn national comedic scrutiny. HBO's John Oliver launched a “Buc-Off” parody merchandise campaign on Last Week Tonight, featuring a 7-foot-tall squirrel mascot named Mr. Nutterbutter, that appeared intended to provoke a lawsuit from Buc-ee's, according to FindLaw. Buc-ee's has signaled it will not sue the network, and Oliver has kept the online store running; the campaign had raised more than $500,000 for the charity Hunger Free America by August, per the same report.
Buc-ee's legal footing traces back to a landmark May 2018 verdict, when a Houston federal jury found that rival Texas chain Choke Canyon's alligator logo infringed Buc-ee's beaver mark, resulting in a court order forcing Choke Canyon to remove all alligator imagery, according to the San Antonio Express-News's earlier reporting. That win, along with federal trademark registrations for the word mark “BEAVER'S” dating to 2017 filings, per legal analysis from Vorys, has emboldened the company's enforcement campaigns nationwide. Still, Buc-ee's record isn't unbroken — it lost a federal court fight against Chicago-based Bucky's convenience stores after Bucky's established pre-existing rights in its own regional market, according to Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A.
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