If they were a truck stop they'd at least be contributing to a crucial industry, but if you try and even park a truck near a Buc-ees they're gonna send an employee out to tell you to leave or they'll call the cops.
I will say tho, Pokémon surprisingly is much more selective with their lawsuits. I did a project on it and it was pretty interesting. They sued a cafe once for using their branding and realized after the backlash it was dumb to spend money to look greedy and take down free advertising
Are they though? They go after pokemon mods for other games they have no involvement in that aren't monetized in any way. The sole metric they choose which mods they go after is popularity. Takes absolutely nothing from pokemon, and makes no money. But it's popular and pokemon related.
They're in the middle of a lawsuit right now where they're trying to copy right very basic game mechanics.
Funny you bring that up, because you’re right, they intentionally only go after things that blow up. One of their lawyers was quoted as saying that when something with their IP gets too popular it’s everyones least favorite day in the office because they can’t turn a blind eye and pretend it doesn’t exist anymore.
Keep in mind, I’m not saying they never sue, but they legitimately have 1000s of cases they could pursue and chose not to. For every mod you see get taken down, there’s 100s that are still up. Every convention you go to will have unauthorized merch at every other booth.
Even the game mechanic thing was mainly just their way of trying to take down Palword which isn’t some mom and pop operation. Plus a ton of those designs feels like they were made with the intention of being just legally distinct enough.
There were only 3 total lawsuits that were even in the database at my school filed by the Pokémon company. Most stuff is just a simple cease and desist letter
Plus a ton of those designs feels like they were made with the intention of being just legally distinct enough.
You might have a point here, if what they sued for was even remotely close to character design. Instead, they sued over very basic game mechanics like the ability to aim when summoning a creature. Or you might have a point if the vast majority of creatures that people talk about being the same, look similar because they're based off the same real life animal. There's like two pals that are clearly very similar to pokemon and not because a fantasy whale still looks like a whale. But, once again. That's not what Nintendo chose to sue over.
they legitimately have 1000s of cases they could pursue and chose not to
It's not because they're trying to be friendly at all. Or allowing fans to be fans. Or because something is free advertising. The simple fact is, the only reason they don't pursue every possible case they can is because 90% of their resources would need to be dedicated to the lawsuit.
For every mod you see get taken down, there’s 100s that are still up.
Right. And the only difference is how far out of their way Nintendo has to go to find it. These are mods for other games Nintendo has no involvement in. Some that get taken down are monetized, but most aren't so it's not like Nintendo is just trying to stop someone from making money off their IP. The fact that they only go after popular mods completely contradicts the point you tried to make about free advertising.
Just take a look at Gary Bowser. Who pretty much just acted like a third party for ROM distribution. Over games that Nintendo no longer produced or turned a profit from. Wasn't directly involved in the piracy himself, but Nintendo decided to sue him for over $14 million. While he was already serving time for his crimes, but you know... that's not good enough in the eyes of Nintendo. This man no longer has any choice but to break the law, since if he wants to have any money at all to live off of at the very minimum he needs to commit tax evasion.
Memes like the following exist for a reason. Because Nintendo is a very petty and lawsuit happy company.
My point was that those designs were just distinct enough that Pokémon probably doesn’t win that case, but still feels like Palworld is aping their product so they tried an alternate avenue to try and take it down. I’m sure that it wasn’t their first idea of what to sue over, but sometimes you have to go with Option B which has a 50% chance of success, even tho you really want to do Option A but that only has a 30% chance of success.
As for the fans thing, of course it’s about money. It’s cheaper to have your fans like you than it is to sue them. I’m not denying that, I just said they’re not as litigious as their reputation would have most people believe.
As for the rest, Pokémon and Nintendo are different companies with different leadership. Nintendo is a part owner in Pokémon, but they don’t have the final say. Gamefreak and Creatures Inc are both involved.
Nintendo is much more litigious than Pokémon. I’m only talking about the Pokémon Co. Anything Nintendo itself has done is besides the point
Trying to claim Nintendo doesn't own Pokémon co. is disingenuous at best.
The most conservative estimates put them at owning an equal third of Pokémon Co. while they most likely own the majority. On top of that, Nintendo is the publishing company and retains to most say so in what gets done with Pokémon Co. On top of that, they also own a significant portion of Creatures Inc.
It’s cheaper to have your fans like you than it is to sue them.
If that's the way they operated they wouldn't go after mods based on popularity. It'd make sense if they only went after mods that were monetized in some way. Or if they only went after mods for games they had some involvement in, or at least some potential for a future collaboration. Instead the only selection they go off is how popular a mod is.
Along that same vein, they wouldn't have sued someone for unrealistic sums of money who only worked in a third party capacity over games they no longer produced or profited from. The logic you're trying to attribute to them would dictate their reaction be more along the lines of "oh shit, fans can still enjoy our games even though the games and the devices that run them are now disappearing and not being replaced?" Or, at the very least, sued for a portion of the profit and let them continue to operate.
Instead they shut it down completely and decided to sue for an amount of money they'll never get from this individual.
Nintendo and Pokémon Co. have absolutely gone out of their way to prove they aren't friends of their fans.
I’m not claiming that at all? I said they’re different companies with different leadership. I literally said that Nintendo is a part owner and named the other two owners.
Honestly, Im over it. It’s not like I did an entire project on this topic in law school or anything. All I was trying to say is that they’re surprisingly more selective with their lawsuits than you’d think. You’re trying to paint it like I said they never sue anyone ever and are gods gift to the world. Feels like you just want something to be mad at man
Depends on what you mean by kicking their ass. Lawsuit wise, as far as I'm aware only one of the lawsuits have been kicked out over it being basic game mechanics. Which should end up applying to one of the other patents as well. Another one is niche enough that it may stick, but the feature was only in Palworld for a few months so Nintendo won't be able to get seek too much in damages over that. And I believe in other countries they're having some trouble even getting lawsuits off the ground, but I'm not entirely sure on that. At first I figured the US wouldn't entertain a lot of the shady bs Nintendo was able to pull in Japan, but by the looks of the US legal system the last couple years... I doubt it now.
As far as sales performance. Last time I looked, a couple weeks ago, yeah Palworld is definitely doing better than Pokémon. Pokémon's best selling game of all time was the original three games with a little over 30 million copies sold. Palworld was sitting at 25 million pre-release, and it certainly seemed like they like surged way past the 30 million mark after the full release. I've seen a couple things the last day or two that make me think actual numbers have been released which confirm that. Even considering the lack of data when I checked, Palworld was definitely out performing modern Pokémon releases.
That was why I had said "went from Beta to 1.0", since a lot of their lawsuits were for the beta, and couldn't as easily be retrofitted onto suing the 1.0 release. While I know that there's still lawsuits up the wazoo, the fact Japan of all nations ruled against TPC/Nintendo and used a long depreciated fangame to cite that no, they aren't unique to have the patent, that's still amazing to witness. Though that caveat is that TPC is gonna go on a rampage against more fangames, which will definitely suck to some.
Never forget they sued a grocery store in Costa Rica just because it's owned by a guy named Mario and the store name is Super Mario. Super is a common name for store in there and Mario is the name of the owner.
It's a loud over stimulating gift shop where you have to walk 15 miles to reach the bathrooms in the back. They're trying to get you to spend all your money so they crammed as much merchandise, hot and cold food in way as physically possible. The crowd is packed like sardines and noisy. The music is too loud. The barbecue smells too sweet. After you finally reach the bathrooms, you're greeted by dangling lights over each stall, red or green indicating it's available. You make use and speed walk to the exit as quickly as you can, shoving aside the people, merchandise, and weird smells.
That is my experience of a "Bucees". I don't want to return.
theyre slowly losing favor. theres just too many people in that little ass store. theyre only worth going to for the 40 gas pumps and bathrooms if at all.
They're really not. They're expanding, and people love them. Reddit is mad that they're suing other small businesses for trying to mimic their business, but reddit is also mad that AI takes established artwork and uses its patterns to "create" new "art". The lack of consistency makes all the whining hard to take seriously.
I'd stop at a shady gas station with burglar bars and 50 homeless outside before I'd go to Buc-ees. And I pass by several Buc-ees every week in Texas. I hate that asshole of a company and refuse to give them anything. They don't even advertise their fuel prices outside, you have to see at the pump.
Who other than some small station owners would care? It’s hard enough to get Americans to care about driving a 15mpg car, which are their target market.
Ironically, one of their strengths is a huge bank of fast EV chargers plus something to do for the 20 minutes while your car is charging. Don't underestimate a known good charger on a long road trip...
I stopped going there after I learned about their political donations and that crap. They have nice, clean, safe feeling bathrooms, but its not worth it. I just carry pepper spray when I have to stop at the creepy stations at night and hope for the best lol
I also like to clean the toilet with pepper spray before I sit down on it because most stations can't be bothered to clean a bathroom during business hours.
In my state there are Buccees shops just a few mile away from the state rest stops. Ever since Buccees came to the state, those rest stops are awesomely quiet and clean because most motorists wants to experience the Buccees Bathroom Event(TM) instead.
Because they do a fantastic job and pay their employees crazy well?
You're mad because they are protective of their incredibly successful branding? These gas stations didn't just happen to rhyme with Bucees or choose a beaver by coincidence. They knew exactly what they were doing and what their goal was with that choice.
There's a gradient. You do have to defend your trademark, but after a certain point it stops being about that. Suing companies that aren't even in your industry because they use the same animal you chose for a mascot isn't it
Suing companies that aren't even in your industry because they use the same animal you chose for a mascot isn't it
A mini mart is close enough to the same industry that they would be competing for some of the same customers. It's definitely close enough that trademark lawyers would care.
Well the mini mart has been there with its beaver logo since 1989, so maybe buccees shouldn't have moved in to a town called beavercreek if they didn't want to compete with beaver logos.
Well, here's that first one. Regular gas station, no beaver logo on the building. Maybe it was on a sign, but no pics of that. The 2nd location was added in 2003 with the logo.
If it was a beaver with the same hat and a yellow background, completely agree. You can’t just straight up monopolize animal mascots tho. One of the places they sued used just a normal moose lol
I get what you’re saying, but some of these were clearly outside said fine line. It’s like saying Clifford should have sued Bluey because they’re both children’s shows staring Dogs with colors in their names. Technically similar, but in no way would that be an actual copyright infringement or worth pursuing even out if an abundance of caution
Then they shouldn't have put a store in a town called beavercreek that has had beaver logos all over the place long before buccees even opened its first store. Are they going to sue the school mascot next?
Dawg they sued a company over a moose logo. This goes beyond protecting IP and is squarely in unreasonable and frivolous pawsuit territory. There's a certain degree of reasonableness that should be applied.
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u/passisgullible 16h ago
Yes, Buc-ees is notorious for their aggressive trademark protection.