Beavers, Gas, and Maybe Beer in Texas

A Texas sized fight between two gas station chains may help us learn who an ordinary observer of beavers is, at least in Texas. Plaintiff is Buc-ees. Defendant is Super Fuels. Plaintiff claims there is an “anthropomorphic and cartoon representation of a smiling animal that closely resembles a beaver, which is similarly positioned in a right-facing angle and is depicted in front of a circular background."

Here is plaintiff’s work:

Here is defendant's work:

As a Northern California vegetarian, I am ill-suited to appreciate the finer points of beaver physiology, but here is a picture of one from Wikipedia:

This is said to be an "American" beaver, to distinguish it from a Canadian beaver, which looks like this:

Much less friendlly, right? Regardless of whether these two pictures are actually representative of their respective nations, there is the question of whether the two are, in fact, different. Do beavers stay on their own side of the St. Lawrence River, or is there perhaps unseemly co-mingling, even borderless migration? Some commentators diplomatically refer to a single "North American" beaver," but if Canada were to some how become the U.S.'s 51st state, such beaver diplomacy would no longer be necessary, although for non-animal husbandry issues, much diplomacy would be required, along with new passports and other forms of identification to show to ICE, to say nothing of the status of French as an official language ("Vive Montréal ! Vive le Québec !"). Anyway,  in the Texas case, I don’t think either parties’ beaver looks like the American or Canadian beaver, so arguments that the two beavers must look alike because they are both based on nature may be a stretch.  I found an Adobe stock cartoon image for perhaps a better comparison:

Many other such images can be found. There are noticeable differences in the parties’ works. Plaintiff’s is wearing a red cap, defendant’s isn’t. Plaintiff’s has a yellow circular background, defendant’s is blue. Plaintiff complains about there being customer confusion, which is of course a trademark not copyright issue, but maybe a gas station customer in Texas, coming in to get not just gas but also beer would overlook these differences (and much else). There are of course many teetotalers in Texas, and upright citizens who come in just for gas. Who should be on the jury can be sorted out on voir dire (pronounced in Texas as "vor dye-er.") Readers (if there are any), what is your vote? I am particularly interested in readers from Texas (I have relatives in Houston, so you guys know I just am kidding) and in Canada (Ces Américains sont tellement drôles, n'est-ce pas ?).