- Historic Downtown Tower 1001 McKinney Trades Hands [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Temple Oaks Baptist Church Back on the Market After Sale Falls Through [The Leader]
- New Houston Homes Took Nearly 5 Days Longer To Sell in April, According to the HomesUSA.com Index [Houston Chronicle]
- Guidelines for Historic Heights Homes Up for Vote on May 31 [The Leader]
- University of Houston Breaks Ground on Katy Campus [HBJ]
- Goldman Sachs To Relocate to 609 Main Downtown [HBJ ($)]
- International Smoke Opening in CityCentre After July 4 [Culturemap]
- 2 New Tea Shops for the Heights [Eater Houston]
- Houston’s Unsheltered Homeless Population on the Rise After Harvey [Houston Public Media ]
- Less Than Half of Houston Residents Live within a 10-Minute Walk of a Park, Finds ParkScore Index [Houstonia]
- Inside Buc-ee’s Successful Trademark Case Against Rival Rest Stop Choke Canyon [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of Seascape Park: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Suprise Surprise, another failed judgement from a broken legal sytem that can easily be bought.
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Take your smart capitalism elsewhere Choke Canyon, TX is NOT open for business!
Re “Less Than Half of Houston Residents Live within a 10-Minute Walk of a Park, Finds ParkScore Index”:
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Walk faster, Houston.
Hey Joel, did you happen to look at the evidence against Choke Canyon? It may be the first time a Chron slideshow is actually useful. It wasn’t just about the logo but also how they used and marketed it.
Next up on Buc-ees take down, sh!t list is Love’s Travel Centers for utilizing the letter “e†in their name (you know because Buc-ee’s owns the letter “eâ€) and for having “to similar†red/yellow coloring.
@enrique, I saw it but was unswayed. I may be an extremist but I’d prefer higher standards for what can and should be defined as trademarks.
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If you want to use a beaver as your trademark, okay. If you want to use a yellow circle as your trademark, okay. However, if you choose to combine the two I don’t agree that this should prevent all other companies from being able to use either a beaver or put a different animal in a yellow circle though.
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I would generally like to see patents and trademarks be very specific to ensure fruitful and cut-throat competition.
Comments from the Buc-ee’s attorney suggests that they consider having clean restrooms, ample stock and a friendly staff to be actionable. I still think it is ridiculous.
I forever more will only stop at a Buc-ee’s to take a dump, but only if I really have to go. There are plenty of other places to buy overpriced refreshments.
Gerald Hines is a genius. He understands that if you hire great architects and are willing to spend money for beautiful skyscrapers, people will come, no matter the market. 609 Main has been a smashing success even though the market isn’t exactly great. Chevron talked about a building and got subsidies and yet there still is no building, even with energy prices up. Houston has been lucky to have had Hines as its patron, other cities should be so fortunate.
As for Choke Canyon, the more you saw of the evidence the more you sided with Buc-ee’s. In the end, the jury made the correct decision. Too many similarities.
Cleaned my glasses, was hungry for a Barbeque sandwich. No problem figuring out where to get one.
The historic district design guidelines, by including (pretty draconian) floor are ratio and lot coverage caps, demonstrate once again that most historic preservation is just density prevention by other means.
I have seen many comments regarding the Bucee’s vs Choke Canyon that lead me to do my own research on the subject. Upon review trademark law is something that cannot be half-assed if you want your business model to be protected.
The comments I have read are half-assed, even if that. A vast majority of the responses seemed, well…., uneducated. It makes me wonder who are these people making comments? Are they failed business people that fell on the wrong side of the law, did they even attend college. Why is there so much shame against successful businesses? Does it really suck that much for you when someone tells you what to do?
The news stories of course leave little explanation, search the interwebz on the filed complaint, then come back write about it. Is the yellow background and red tongue really the problem?
Lets discuss, please.
Bucc-ee’s should change their name to Bull-ee’s, since that’s just what they are.
The bucc’ees lawsuit feels more like a lawsuit against choke canyons business model than their logo. Similar products, store layout, plus an animal with a yellow circle behind it. I feel like this is close, but doubtful as to being “deceptive†to consumers. However, I think choke canyon could pick another shape and color, keep everything else the same and still find themselves being sued by buccees. Bucccees doesn’t want anyone to copy their model, regardless of the logo.
The Heights had more density 40-50 years ago when the average size of a house was 1200 sq ft. The Heights had three more elementary schools than it has today and filled the middle schools and high school without needing magnet programs to pull kids in from other school zones. Square footage does not equal density. A 3500 sq ft home does not make a neighborhood any more dense than a 2700 sq ft home. It just makes the builder and realtor more money.
The buc’ees lawsuit is great publicity for Choke Canyon. I will definitely be on the lookout now for Choke Canyons to go to.
Lunch- there’s some good stuff in your take. I wouldn’t put attending college as required for some sort of enlightenment. That part of your comment is revealing about how you look at other people and yourself. I really don’t think you care to “discuss” with anyone.
memebag: Re living near a park. Could it also be that more than half doesn’t place a high value when making a home buying decision on walking proximity to a park? While I love being walking distance to a park (and other things), not everyone feels the same so we shouldn’t look at people not living by a park as a bad thing (not saying you are — just saying :)
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If a home is $220k by a park, and the same home far from a park is $200k, then you’ll decide if that extra $20k is worth it to you based on how much you care about being near a park. Seems simple.
Old School was doing pretty well until he stumbled onto his last sentence.
@It’s time for lunch, your comment seems to skip over modern day reality where the american economy is continually shifting to more of a rentier capitalism then anything competition based. Why is 40% of the nasdaq comprised of only 4 companies? How is that beneficial to the american economy?
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If all the trademark and IP BS you’re alluding to didn’t make it even harder for small business to fight off crippling lawsuits and survive in a modern day economy then more people would care. Unfortunately that’s not the reality of what people see and it’s not the reality of our economy.
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People will naturally gravitate towards supporting the small dog in the fight, especially when those same people always have to live under the fear that one lawsuit from a rich dude would bring their life crashing down.
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So yes, we don’t care about legalities, we’re not lawyers. We care about helping the average american worker succeed.
@Old School – 3500 sqft also makes most families FAR more comfortable than 2700sqft.
I have never thought the restrictions were about density…they are about 2 things.
1) People who are getting priced out of the area attempting to stop the appreciation/growth
2) hatred of the same house/townhome getting built over & over & over & over again.
I can sympathize with #2 but not #1. The historic guidelines are intended to do 1 thing well – slow appreciation.
@Cody: I was just making a joke. If less than half of Houston residents live within a 10 minute walk, we can improve that by walking faster. Jokes are always better when you explain them.
I find it very interesting how the press and the consequent public response to them were so one-sided up until today. The press does not exist to educate you, only to capture your attention at the lowest cost possible. Y’all should, as the consumers of their media, be more doubtful about just about every iota of information that they promulgate about which you yourself are not an expert — as well as about the conspicuous absence of information.