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…