Beacon Hospitality, owner of WILD WILLY'S BURGERS, sues Buffalo Wild Wings over its WILD BURGER delivery brand: complaint allegations

What was filed

The complaint is Document 1, filed October 20, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire. The case is Beacon Hospitality, LLC v. Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc., No. 1:26-cv-00909, assigned to Judge Paul J. Barbadoro and referred to Magistrate Judge Andrea K. Johnstone. It pleads four counts: federal trademark infringement under 15 U.S.C. § 1114; false designation of origin and unfair competition under 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a); common law trademark infringement and unfair competition; and violation of the New Hampshire Consumer Protection Act, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 358-A. Beacon demands a jury trial. Counsel is Ryan D. Sam of Sam IP Legal Solutions, P.C. The complaint runs 19 pages. Its nine exhibits, which the complaint describes as the complaint and stipulated judgment from an earlier District of Maine case, delivery-platform and search screenshots, a Facebook exchange, and the registration certificate, are not freely available on the public docket.

The docket also lists, on October 20, 2026, a corporate disclosure statement, a miscellaneous filing, and Document 4, which it labels Preliminary Injunction; none of those is freely available on the public docket. On October 21, 2026, it shows a waiver of summons issued and the AO 120 trademark report.

The parties and the mark

The complaint says Beacon Hospitality, LLC is a Maine limited liability company with a mailing address in York Harbor, Maine, and that Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc. is a Minnesota corporation with its principal executive office in Atlanta, Georgia. Beacon says it operates, and licenses others to operate, WILD WILLY'S BURGERS restaurants in multiple locations, including a restaurant in Rochester, New Hampshire run by a licensee that shares Beacon's membership.

Beacon asserts U.S. Reg. No. 2,746,233 for WILD WILLY'S BURGERS for restaurant services in Class 43. USPTO records list it as a live registration for the words in typed form, issued August 5, 2003, on an application filed December 7, 2001, with BURGERS disclaimed and a first use date of May 10, 2001. They show the Section 8 declaration accepted and the Section 15 declaration acknowledged on March 28, 2009, renewals in 2013 and 2023, and Beacon Hospitality, a Maine limited liability company, as the current owner. The recorded chain of title runs from the original registrant through a 2004 change of name and assignments executed in 2018 and 2023, the last one to Beacon. The complaint calls the registration incontestable and says a predecessor enforced it in a 2006 District of Maine suit that ended in a stipulated permanent injunction in January 2007.

What the complaint alleges

Beacon alleges that Buffalo Wild Wings adopted WILD BURGER for hamburger-centric restaurant services long after the registration issued. It alleges, on information and belief, that Wild Burger is a virtual restaurant brand, prepared in existing Buffalo Wild Wings kitchens and sold only through third-party delivery platforms, and it says the listings historically did not disclose the Buffalo Wild Wings connection. It points to delivery-platform listings for Buffalo Wild Wings locations in Rochester and Nashua, New Hampshire that display Wild Burger in large type, and says the Rochester location competes head to head with its licensed restaurant there. It pleads forward and reverse confusion in the alternative, and it alleges that search engine results and AI assistants conflate the two names. It alleges, on information and belief, that Buffalo Wild Wings either ran a clearance search or avoided one and adopted the name with actual or willfully blind knowledge of Beacon's rights.

For actual confusion, the complaint alleges at least eleven documented incidents at the Rochester restaurant since at least March 2025. It describes diners who walked in or called about delivery orders that turned out to be Wild Burger orders, delivery drivers who arrived to pick up Wild Burger orders, and a Facebook exchange in which a customer who, on information and belief, had bought a meal from Buffalo Wild Wings posted a complaint about a delivered burger order on the Rochester restaurant's page. Beacon says it served a written demand on June 11, 2025, that Buffalo Wild Wings refused in writing on July 10, 2025, and that it served a second demand on August 5, 2025. It alleges, on information and belief, that in or about late July 2026 Buffalo Wild Wings began adding "by Buffalo Wild Wings" after Wild Burger in its delivery listings, and it alleges that change is incomplete and does not cure the confusion because WILD BURGER still leads the listings and appears alone in the logo, URLs, and menu headers.

Relief requested

The prayer asks for preliminary and permanent injunctions against using WILD BURGER, alone or in any combination, including WILD BURGER BY BUFFALO WILD WINGS; destruction of materials under 15 U.S.C. § 1118; a sworn compliance report under 15 U.S.C. § 1116(a); damages and the defendant's profits under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a); trebled or enhanced damages under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a) and N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 358-A:10; attorneys' fees on an exceptional case finding; costs; and interest. The federal counts allege willfulness on information and belief, and the consumer protection count seeks actual damages or $1,000, whichever is greater.