Bass Pro sues man for trademark infringement

The 8,000-square-foot Osceola store – housed in a metal-sided building along State Highway 13 – wasn’t open for a month when Moore received an austere letter from a St. Louis attorney representing Springfield-based Bass Pro Shops.

“While your infringement of Bass Pro trademarks may have been accidental or otherwise without any malicious intentions, we must demand that you immediately cease and desist from all use of such confusingly similar marks,” it read.

When Moore refused, Bass Pro filed a federal lawsuit alleging trademark infringement. The company owns state and federal trademark registrations for Outdoor World – words prominently displayed on the front of some of its sporting goods emporiums throughout the country.

Moore said he just followed the advice of his Lee’s Summit lawyer, A. Howard Chamberlin, who fired off a letter in response to Bass Pro’s demands after finding numerous businesses with Outdoor World in their names.

“There’s a bazillion of them out there,” Moore said.

An Internet search turned up several campgrounds and sporting goods stores, including Cleland’s Outdoor World in Swanton, Ohio, and The Outdoor World, which has three locations in northern California.

But a Bass Pro spokesman said the company must protect its brand.

“We are very protective of our trademarks as any company would be,” said Larry Whiteley, Bass Pro’s manager of corporate relations. “We spend a lot of time and a lot of money on those trademarks.”

The suit alleges that Buzz’s Outdoor World infringes on and dilutes Bass Pro Shops’ distinctive Outdoor World trademark, leading to unfair competition.

Bass Pro first learned of Buzz’s Outdoor World – less than 70 miles from its flagship Outdoor World store in Springfield – in March, records show. Buzz’s use of Outdoor World in a sign on the side of the store is “intentional and likely to cause confusion with Bass Pro’s customers,” according to the suit. The company also contends that the goods and services offered at Buzz’s Outdoor World – outdoor gear, marine supplies and shooting ranges – are “closely related, if not identical” to those at Bass Pro stores.

Buzz’s Outdoor World, which employs four people, has a rifle range, trap house and archery range.

Moore – himself an avid hunter and fisherman – said he didn’t know Bass Pro Shops had registered Outdoor World as a trademark. And he questions the retailer’s claims that his business is causing confusion among its customers.

“I’m just this little country boy out in the sticks, and they’re in the big cities,” he said.

Bass Pro’s attorney, Bruce Campbell of Husch & Eppenberger LLC’s St. Louis office, has asked U.S. District Court Judge Richard Dorr to order the destruction of all labels, signs, letterhead, insignias, brochures, business cards and any other written or recorded material, including advertisements, for Buzz’s Outdoor World.

Moore said those materials are precisely the reason he has no intention of changing the name of his business.

“I’m pretty much set on it, because I’ve got thousands and thousands of dollars in the name already,” he said. “I’m ticked off because this has been a lifelong dream.”

Bass Pro also is seeking a court order that would require Moore to pay it an undetermined amount for “all profits, gains and advantages obtained” from his “unlawful conduct,” according to the suit.

Moore also owns Buzz Moore Construction in Lee’s Summit and a restaurant, hotel and bar in Roscoe, a town about nine miles southwest of Osceola.

In other Bass Pro litigation news:

• A Tulsa, Okla., judge recently dismissed a lawsuit filed against the city of Broken Arrow by a group of taxpayers challenging a $20 million deal for a new Bass Pro store. The judge ruled the deal was legal and in good faith despite the group’s assertion that the city violated Oklahoma’s open meetings law and was “duped” into paying the construction costs.

• On Sept. 5, the Louisiana Supreme Court will hear arguments on a similar case involving a proposal to publicly finance a 150,000-square-foot Bass Pro store in Denham Springs, east of Baton Rouge, with $50 million in bonds. Two lower courts have ruled the proposed project was legal.