No one would ever confuse this Jersey pizza place for the high-end, opulent New York restaurants that share the same name.
It’s in a nondescript strip mall, next to a Chinese food joint and behind a 7-Eleven. It boasts a bargain special: two large pizzas for $25 on Mondays and Wednesdays.
It’s also probably safe to assume that the glitterati — the famous, wealthy, and beautiful people who frequent any of the luxury Cipriani hotels, bars and restaurants in New York, London, Venice and beyond — have never made it down to the Cipriani’s Pasta, Pizza and More on Highway 33 in Neptune.
Still, it was no joking matter to Cipriani, the global dining and hospitality empire, when it discovered it was sharing a name with the pizza parlor just off the Garden State Parkway, about 90 minutes south of its Manhattan signature restaurants.
They went to court.
In a federal lawsuit, Cipriani Group last week charged the New Jersey Cipriani restaurant with trademark infringement, unfair competition and anti-cybersquatting after also discovering that the owner of the Neptune pizzeria had also obtained a cipriani.net internet address.
“The Cipriani U.S. Locations regularly attract celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, Gigi Hadid, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Sofia Vergara and Kim Petras among many others to movie premiere afterparties, celebrity fundraisers and other star-studded events. International businesspeople, movie, music and sports stars, super models, nobility, and other luminaries make it a point to patronize and be observed at Cipriani U.S. Locations,” the lawsuit noted. “Cipriani has gained significant common law trademark and other rights.”
Cipriani 42nd Street, one of the international dining chain's venues in Manhattan.Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
The pizza spot in Neptune, it claimed, had infringed on those rights, using a name that confused consumers into believing that it was affiliated with Cipriani.
After sending several cease-and-desist letters, the matter is now in federal district court in New Jersey.
Attorneys for Cipriani in New York declined comment.
But Romeo Ortega, who opened his Cipriani’s in Monmouth County a little more than a year ago, doesn’t know what the big deal is. And he believes he shouldn’t have to change the name of his restaurant, because it’s not in New York.
“It’s a different state so it doesn’t have to do anything with New York. I talked to my lawyer and he said there’s nothing to do,” said Ortega, who claimed he named his place “after a boat in Italy” and not after the storied international restaurant chain that had its start when Giuseppe Cipriani opened the doors of Harry’s Bar in Venice’s historic Piazza San Marco in 1931.
Performs at a benefit at Cipriani on May 7, 2008 in New York.MATT CARASELLA/Patrick McMullan via Getty Image
Now known as the watering hole that became one of Ernest Hemingway’s favorite bars, Harry’s spawned a network of restaurants and clubs around the world. In 2014, George Clooney got married at Venice’s ritzy Belmond Hotel Cipriani not far away. In New York, Cipriani Downtown has been called one of the hippest celebrity hotspots in town.
Ortega’s Cipriani has none of that vibe. It’s just a pizzeria. And to him, Cipriani in New York is playing hardball against a little guy.
“It’s not fair what they’re doing,” he complained. “This big corporation comes to my small business … It’s been causing problems for me, it makes me think I’m doing something wrong, which I’m not. I don’t have any recipe from them, I don’t have anything to do with them.”
After he got the cease-and-desist letter, Ortega grudgingly changed the restaurant’s spelling on his website to “Sipriani’s.” But he has not changed the website domain itself or signage outside.
“If they pay for the sign, I’ll be more than happy to do it. I’ll change it to the same thing that I have on the website,” he said.
Two slices of pizza from Cipriani's Italian Restaurant in Neptune.Jeremy Schneider | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Experts in trademark law, though, say that probably won’t be enough to call off the dogs.
David W. Opderbeck, a professor at Seton Hall Law School whose work focuses on intellectual property, cybersecurity and technology, said Cipriani “could care less about this pizza joint in Neptune or whatever it us. But under trademark law, you have to take action in terms of policing your mark or risk losing it.”
And changing the name to “Sipriani” likely is not going to help. The rightful owner of a trademark can prohibit others from using the same mark or another mark which is so similar in sight, sound or meaning or appearance that it would be likely to lead to confusion.
“Obviously the sight and sound are identical, so I don’t think that’s going to help them,” observed Opderbeck.
Indeed, several years ago the owners of New York’s Four Seasons restaurant went after the operators of a restaurant on the East Orange municipal golf course at the edge of Millburn Township known as the Fore Seasons, in keeping with the golf theme.
They eventually reached an out-of-court settlement and the Fore Seasons changed its name to Johnny’s on the Green. New operators have since renamed it Par 440.
Then there was the David vs. Goliath battle for Taco Tuesday between Gregory’s Restaurant and Bar, a 77-year-old Somers Point eatery, and Taco Bell that made national headlines last year.
Gregory’s held a trademark on “Taco Tuesday” when it came up against Taco Bell, which had long fought to have the trademark “liberated” in all 50 states and had succeeded in all but New Jersey.
Ultimately, Gregory’s relinquished legal ownership of the branded slogan.
In the matter of Cipriani v. Cipriani, the internet complicates the dispute, said Opderbeck.
“Is someone is actually looking for Cipriani going to end up at a pizza place in Neptune? Probably not,” the Seton Hall law professor remarked. But he suggested the cipriani.net domain name was the more significant part of the case.
“Somehow this little restaurant got its hands on the domain name,” he said.
For now, Ortega is standing his ground.
“I don’t have any issue,” he said. “I don’t want to have an issue with anyone.”
Note: this story has been updated to clarify the name change of the former Fore Seasons restaurant.
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Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com and followed on Twitter at @J_Schneider and on Instagram at @JeremyIsHungryAgain.
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @TedShermanSL.