Buc-ee's Is Suing a Tiny Ohio Corner Store Over Its Beaver Logo

Buc-ee's has taken on a lot of things. This might be the battle that costs them the most goodwill.

The Texas-based travel center giant filed a federal trademark infringement lawsuit on July 28 against Beaver's Mini Mart — a small family-owned convenience store in Beavercreek, Ohio, operated by Vik Boparai for over a decade. The suit alleges Beaver's Mini Mart uses a cartoon beaver with "wide eyes and a smile" and prominently features the color red — elements Buc-ee's says are too similar to its federally registered trademarks.

Buc-ee's wants the court to order the store to stop using its logo and name, tear down all signage and marketing materials, pay damages and attorney's fees, and hand over any profits tied to the alleged infringement. The chain also requested a jury trial.

Boparai, who has two kids and says the store is how he feeds them, told reporters he has no idea why a company with hundreds of massive travel centers is coming after him. "I don't know why they would sue a small business like mine," he said.

The community of Beavercreek answered that question with solidarity cookies.

A nearby bakery immediately started selling support cookies with 10% of all proceeds going to the mini mart. Merchandise followed — 100% of t-shirt proceeds going directly to Beaver's Mini Mart. The shirts sold out fast. So did the cookies.

Here's the Thing About Beavercreek

If Buc-ee's legal team had done thirty seconds of local research before filing, they might have reconsidered.

Beavercreek is a city named after beavers. The high school mascot is a beaver. Local businesses across the area use beaver imagery because — it bears repeating — they live in a place called Beavercreek. Cartoon beavers are not a Buc-ee's invention in a city that has been named after the animal since long before Buc-ee's existed.

"Because it's Beavercreek, there's beavers all over the place, and there's lots of things that have a beaver name or have creek, or have beaver in the logo — so it's really common around here," resident Sharon Cross told a local outlet.

Buc-ee's opened its first Ohio location in Huber Heights — near Dayton — in April 2026. It filed this lawsuit three months later.

This Isn't Buc-ee's First Rodeo

The Beaver's Mini Mart lawsuit is part of a pattern. Buc-ee's has been aggressively pursuing trademark cases against businesses with cartoon animal logos for years.

Earlier this year the chain sued Mickey Mart — an Ohio convenience store chain with about 42 locations — after it rebranded to "Mickey's" and updated its cartoon moose logo. Buc-ee's argued the smiling cartoon animal inside a round background was too similar to its own beaver design. It also sued a South Carolina conservative apparel company in May 2025 for putting the Buc-ee's beaver on military-themed merchandise without permission.

The aggressive legal posture drew enough attention that comedian John Oliver dedicated a segment on Last Week Tonight to mocking Buc-ee's trademark lawsuits — and dared the company to go after someone its own size. Days later, Buc-ee's filed the Beaver's Mini Mart lawsuit.

Buc-ee's says it first became aware of Beaver's Mini Mart in October 2025 after the store filed an Ohio trade name registration, and that it tried multiple times to resolve the dispute before going to court. In a statement after the backlash erupted, the company said it "repeatedly contacted" the store before filing.

What Trademark Law Actually Says

Buc-ee's trademark case isn't frivolous on its face — companies are legally required to defend their trademarks or risk losing them. That's a real principle of trademark law, and it's why large companies sometimes pursue cases that look disproportionate from the outside.

But trademark infringement requires showing that consumers are actually likely to be confused between the two brands — that someone might walk into Beaver's Mini Mart in Beavercreek, Ohio thinking it was a Buc-ee's. Given that Buc-ee's locations are massive 74,000-square-foot travel centers with up to 120 fuel pumps, and Beaver's Mini Mart is a corner store, that confusion argument is going to be a tough sell to a jury in Dayton.

The court will decide. In the meantime Beavercreek is buying cookies.

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