oklahoma city (KFOR) – A small Oklahoma company is preparing for a battle with gas station giant Buc-ee’s.
Jarrad Hewitt, who has owned Nut Huggers Apparel for three years, said he received a three-page letter from lawyers at Buc-ee’s demanding that he stop using his logo.
Hewitt said he received the letter weeks after achieving his most profitable monthly sales since he launched his company. His company focuses on underwear and apparel, using a patent to redesign the inside of his underwear to accommodate more active people.
Hewitt said he came up with his logo featuring a cartoon squirrel holding two acorns.
“We went with a kind of sarcastic humor,” Hewitt said.
After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in his company and finally seeing it succeed, he said he was shocked when he received the message.
“The initial demand came in a little hot and heavy,” Hewitt said. “They suggested they owned all the cartoon rodents.”
The letter stated that Hewitt’s logo was trademark infringement.
“Nut Huggers currently uses a brown rodent cartoon character, smiling with prominent teeth, in various images,” said Trent Minning, Buc-ee’s assistant general counsel.
The letter also called on companies to stop using cartoons, rodents and the colors red, yellow and brown, and to stop using baseball caps. Hewitt also requested that only frontal images be used.
The small business owner, which has a trademark for its logo, said it emailed Menning and said it would stop using certain colors. He said he would also stop using the profile for his photo, but even that wasn’t enough.
“They came back and said, ‘Great, now that you’ve given us this, we want everything else,'” Hewitt said.
The gas station giant has sued other companies in Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida on similar grounds.
Hewitt said what was happening to him was different, and he was going to fight.
“I think it’s time for someone to stand up and say, ‘This is not right. There is no violation here,'” Hewitt said. “You all have no right to do this and deprive people of their local livelihoods.”
News 4 reached out to Buc-ee’s and Menning’s corporate offices for comment, but did not hear back.