It was a classic piece of Americana, a 40-foot-something-long mural depicting a 1954 Texaco station painted on a white wall at Ric Kastner's gas station on West Government Way. Painted in 1994, the mural fit right in because Kastner was running a Texaco station at the time.
But times change, and his Magnolia Texaco station was turned into Shell station in April last year, he said. But Kastner kept the mural, and he didn't change a double-sided sandwich-board sign offering "Complete Auto Repair" and "Free Coffee" with a Texaco logo painted at the bottom.
But that's a corporate no-no, according to a Sept. 25 letter Kastner received from the Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC law firm in Alexandria, Va. The firm represents Chevron Corp, which has merged with Texaco, and Chevron now owns "the legendary Texaco brand and related trademarks," according to the letter.
Shell has its name and logos all over the station now, but the Chevron/Texaco lawyers charge that the mural and sandwich-board logos are violations of federal trademark laws "because consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that [Kastner's] facility is authorized or sponsored or otherwise associated with Chevron."
The law firm's letter included Xerox photos of the alleged violations, and Kastner was pretty peeved about getting burned for branding, he said. But the station owner bowed to the inevitable, and he painted out the logos on the sandwich-board sign.
Kastner, who's owned the business for 16 years, also covered all but some bits on the side of the mural with black plastic. "I didn't want to, but I had to," he groused.
When asked why he couldn't just paint out the logos on the mural, Kastner noted there are more than a dozen, including one on a fireman's hat a boy is wearing in a car at the station. "It would look like [poop] if you did that," he said.
The former Texaco station owner also has a huge collection of toy-sized vehicles and planes featuring the Texaco name and logos in the room where the cash register is located. "What are they going to do, make me get rid of these?" he asked while holding up one of the replicas.
Texaco paid for the mural to be painted almost 13 years ago, and a Shell representative asked him abut the artwork when that company added the Magnolia station to its franchises last year, Kastner said. But Kastner didn't say anything, he recalled. "And they just left me alone."
The station owner isn't the only one who thinks Chevron/Texaco is being a little hard-nosed about the branding issue. So does longtime regular Magnolia customer John Maynard from "Robin and Maynard" of radio-talkshow fame. "I just find it hard to fathom," he said.
"It's a little piece of community history," Maynard said of the mural. "It's folksy." Maynard also said he understands the corporate mindset, but he thinks the oil giant could make an exception for something that's been part of the neighborhood for so long.
He also wonders about the timing. "Why all of a sudden now?" asked Maynard, who also doubts customers will be confused. "I don't think anybody will pull in to gas up and think they should go to a Texaco station," he snorted.
Kastner is wondering whether Shell might pony up some money to have a mural of one of their old stations painted over the old Texaco one. If that doesn't happen, he'll probably end up just painting over the artwork, the station owner said.
The law-firm letter instructs Kastner to indicate his agreement to make the changes by signing the letter and returning it no later than Oct. 22.
Admitting that he's a cantankerous sort, Kastner said he didn't do that. "Hah, maybe I'll just wait till they call me," he grinned.
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