The Burger Express color scheme is red, white and yellow. Its logo has block lettering and a yellow, arrow-like design through the name. Its menu is bare-bones, with just three burger choices.

The problem for owner Larry Squillace is that all of those things are true of In-N-Out Burger, the California-based chain.

Burger Express, at 6615 W. Fairview Ave., has been open for about a month. Already comparisons to In-N-Out have been made by a local food blogger, a commenter on the restaurant’s Facebook page, and the Statesman’s Dana Oland, who wrote in the Food Notes column July 8 in Scene magazine that Burger Express “looks like another In-N-Out Burger copycat from its logo to its menu.”

Oland reminded readers about Chadder’s, the Utah franchise that went further, borrowing In-N-Out’s language, and was sued for copyright infringement in 2007.

That comparison was prescient.

Squillace got a letter July 9 from In-N-Out lawyers telling him to scrap the resemblance or face a lawsuit.

“There can be no debate that your restaurant is modeled after In-N-Out’s restaurants,” the letter said. “Our information suggests that you have even copied In-N-Out’s food presentation — the burger partially wrapped with the side visible — to the customer.”

In-N-Out gave Squillace until Aug. 5 to make changes.

Squillace, whose wife had died three days earlier, was befuddled and angry.

“This goliath company just wants to pop our bubble and take all our dreams and smash ‘em,” Squillace said.

In-N-Out fears customers will confuse Burger Express with In-N-Out, and the company must defend “trademarks and trade-dress against any and all copycats and imitators,” said Carl Van Fleet, vice president of planning and development for In-N-Out Burger. “Since our inception in 1948, we have worked hard to develop the unique look and feel of our restaurants.”

Squillace doubts people are mistaking Burger Express for In-N-Out.

Van Fleet said the company tries to work with owners to “resolve disputes such as these amicably” and “find reasonable solutions” to make their brands distinct.

It would cost at least $37,000 to make the changes the lawyers want, Squillace said. In-N-Out doesn’t seem interested in opening a restaurant in the Boise area anyway, he said.

“At least when Walmart comes to town, they crush the little guys, but they don’t sue them out of business,” he said.

Squillace explains the resemblance this way: He was nostalgic for old-school hamburger stands, having grown up in southern California flipping burgers for his father’s burger restaurant. He wanted to bring that 1960s decor and simple menu to Boise.

His father’s restaurant had “three hamburgers, three fries and Coke,” he said — just like Burger Express.

Growing up that way, he said, he knew what In-N-Out was all about, just as a Boise State University alumnus knows the Bronco colors.

His colors are standard for fast food, “meant to instigate movement and grab your attention, and get you in and get you out,” unlike soothing blues and greens, he said.

But Squillace said he “intentionally stayed away from” In-N-Out’s famous arrow design.

After getting the letter, Squillace said, he asked In-N-Out to send someone to Boise to see the store, but the company turned him down.

“We became aware of Burger Express through customers,” Van Fleet said. “Once again, we are trying to resolve the matter amicably, and formal legal action has not been initiated.”

Squillace said his business insurance policy covers trademark infringement.

“I’m assuming — I hope — they are going to defend it for me,” he said.

Audrey Dutton: 377-6448