Wawa Sues Florida Restaurant Over Name
By Syma Chowdhry
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Wawa is suing a Florida restaurant over its name.
Yogi Patel opened an Indian restaurant named Wawa Curry Taste of India in Kissimmee last year.
He named it Wawa because it's complimentary word in Hindi.
Patel says, "In India, somebody doing something good is 'wawa.'"
Patel received a notice from Wawa's lawyer about a month ago.
Even though he lives near a Wawa store, he didn't think there would be any confusion.
But now he is in the process of changing the name.
"I don't want to spend money on lawyers and this and that. It is a big corporation, you know."
Patel hasn't decided what the restaurant's new name will be, but he is keeping a positive attitude.
"It is not going to hurt my business. People will still come, it's the same food just a different name."
Wawa released the following statement regarding the notice: 'At Wawa we support the success of all businesses including Rakeshkumar Patel's Indian restaurant. That said, we have an obligation to protect consumers from any likelihood of confusion that may occur in the marketplace and to protect the brand name, goodwill and reputation that we've worked so hard to build over the past 50 years. In this case, we reached out to Mr. Patel on multiple occasions to resolve this matter privately and amicably. Regrettably, he did not respond, so we were left with no other choice but to take this course of action. We wish Mr. Patel nothing but success, just without our name included.'
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