The Issue: The owners of the Utah Mammoth (an NHL hockey team) filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Utah against Mammoth Hockey LLC, an Oregon company that has made hockey equipment bags under the Mammoth name since 2014. The team is asking the court to rule that its name doesn't infringe the bag maker's trademark. The bag maker wants the court to make the team stop using it.
The Source: https://apnews.com/article/nhl-utah-mammoth-lawsuit-13054a0ec489d940bab443fa924e3b70
The Takeaway: This is a good example of why it generally pays to get the search and registration done early. Registration won't beat someone who was using a similar name before you. That's what the clearance search is for. But it can put you in a much stronger spot when a dispute shows up years later.
Just like in the Buc-ee's example, costly trademark disputes can bubble up for businesses years after they started using their trademark in commerce.
Federal trademark registration generally gives you a nationwide legal presumption that the trademark belongs to you.
Even if you have no plans to expand beyond your local market, federal trademark registration can help protect you from a larger out-of-state corporation appearing out of nowhere and deciding they want to take your local market from you.