U-Haul CEO Joe Shoen: “We’re Fighting For The Little Guys Too”

Posted by Brad Hadfield on Dec 11, 2024 11:39:38 AM

Joe Shoen, CEO of U-Haul, has had enough.

As MSM reported on November 21st, U-Haul filed a complaint in the US District Court of Arizona against Public Storage. The action is designed to protect U-Haul’s right to continue its use of the color orange and the word ‘orange’ when promoting and marketing its storage business. This comes after Public Storage demanded U-Haul discontinue use of the color, whether on doors, signage or in marketing and promotional materials, despite the fact that it has been using it since 1945.

U-Haul orange 1945

Shoen sat down with MSM to discuss the complaint and what it could mean not just for U-Haul, but every owner and operator in the self-storage industry.

“[Public Storage] started this about four years ago,” says Shoen. “We tried to talk with them numerous times, but effectively got the brush off. It got to the point where we had no choice but to file a complaint and hope a federal district judge will make a common sense decision.”

The complaint states that U-Haul believes Public Storage has “engaged in a multi-faceted and corrupt campaign to wrongfully appropriate rights in the use of the color and word ‘orange’ in connection with self-storage services and to assert such rights against U-Haul, its sister companies, its dealers, and licensees.”

“Orange is a standard color in self-storage,” explains Shoen. “Claiming exclusive rights to the color, whether on doors, buildings, or marketing materials is egregious, and if they can get a registration they’ll enforce it and everyone, not just U-Haul, is going to have to change. A small operator with 500 unit doors? You’re going to have to pay to replace or repaint them. That is going to be an expensive undertaking.”

To support the notion that orange is a general self-storage color, and not a color only associated with Public Storage, Shoen says the company has turned over to the court evidence of at least 800 self-storage operators that use the color orange on their doors. “That’s just what we’ve gathered in a few weeks,” he adds. “I believe there are many, many more.”

A quick search of stock photography also confirms the prevalence of the color orange within the industry; there are hundreds of stock photos showing orange doors and buildings – none of which are specific to Public Storage.

orange doors

“U-Haul alone has 5,000 independent dealers who are also self-storage operators. These aren’t big operations; maybe one to three facilities. They aren’t in a position to fight this, so we have to settle this matter once and for all and get a judge to say, ‘Stop this, this color can be used by any self-storage facility across the board.’”

U-Haul’s complaint further states that Public Storage is so determined to monopolize the color and/or the term ‘orange’ that it has fabricated use of trademarks containing the word and knowingly filed fraudulent evidence of trademark use with the USPTO. As evidence, U-Haul has turned over examples of website pages in which Public Storage retroactively added slogans and marks centered around the word and color orange to existing pages, captured images of it, and then removed them. “It was only done to tell the judge they’d used it, but it was there for maybe four weeks,” states Shoen. “They’ve also clearly been manipulating Wikipedia and AI so that orange appears to be attributed only to public storage. It’s all so dishonest, and I don’t think it’s wise to fib to the judge.”

As a family company – Shoen’s children Stuart, Sam, and Royal all work for U-Haul – Shoen feels they have more in common with smaller operators than one might think, which is another reason he’s standing up to Public Storage. “If they get what they want and take control of this color, this will affect everyone in the industry and they’ll begin to fall like dominoes. It’ll cause a serious disruption, and we can’t allow it to happen. So we’re fighting for the little guys too, because they can’t push back against this like we can.”

That said, Shoen says he’d still love to hear from them, and he addresses them directly: “Listen, we’re not asking for anything, and we’re certainly not going to ask for help with attorney’s fees; we’ve got that covered! We just think all of us should stick together as a group and say, ‘We all have a right to this color.’ This will show the court that we’re in this together, and that this has far-reaching effects outside of just U-Haul.”

Shoen encourages anyone concerned about the case, and their own use of the color orange, to reach out to him directly and has provided his email address and cell phone number.

Joe@Uhaul.com | 602-390-6525

MSM previously reached out to Public Storage for comment but did not receive a response.

The entire interview with Joe Shoen, including his thoughts on family, community, and the future of self-storage, will be in January Messenger. Subscribe today for this and other exclusive stories and interviews. Plus, take advantage of special rates through December 31st.