The company on Tuesday filed suit in federal court against a North Carolina restaurant group, alleging trademark infringement. The other company’s name? What-A-Burger. Or, to be more precise, What-A-Burger #13.
The suit alleges that the North Carolina restaurants sell food that is “identical to Whataburger’s offerings.” What-A-Burger’s menu, online, includes burgers, patty melts, chicken tenders and milk shakes as well as North Carolina specialties such as grits and pulled pork.
The North Carolina chain is small, listing two brick-and-mortar locations in Mount Pleasant and Locust, both east of Charlotte. Its website explains that it is a family business, opened in 1969 by Marvin and Jane Bost and currently run by their son, Zeb Bost.
Whataburger, founded as a hamburger stand in Corpus Christi in 1950, says in the suit that it trademarked its name over a decade before the Bosts opened What-A-Burger #13.
The name became an issue a couple of years ago, when Whataburger, the Texas one, was planning to open its first restaurant in North Carolina. While most Whataburgers today are still in Texas, the company has been marching into other states since it was acquired by Chicago-based BDT Capital Partners in 2019. In January the chain surpassed 1,000 stores thanks to new locations in Georgia and Oklahoma.
Whataburger says in its lawsuit that it reached out to What-A-Burger #13 in October 2022, and that the two businesses signed a “confidential co-existence agreement” that would have allowed the North Carolina restaurants to continue operating as What-A-Burger #13, albeit with certain limitations.
Since then, Whataburger says in its suit, What-A-Burger has continuously violated the agreement. The lawsuit, which also alleges breach of contract and unfair trade practices, is seeking to have What-A-Burger #13 permanently banned from using that name or otherwise doing things that might confuse North Carolinians.
