Tiny Restaurant Loses Identity in Legal Jungle

Sounds of the rain forest:

Caw! Cackle! Chee-chee-chee! Waha-waha! Hoopa-hoopa! Cease-and-desist!

That last one is why a little Bolivian restaurant in Camarillo is no longer called Rain Forest Delights.

Now it's Selva Andina Delights.

Same terrific empanadas. Same charming cook. But as of last week, a different name--thanks to the vine-swinging, chest-beating call of trademark attorneys the world over: Cease-and-desist! Cease-and-desist!

Maria Way ceased and desisted and learned a sad truth about the restaurant business: When it comes to rain forests, it's a jungle out there.

Maria and her husband, Jim, dipped deep into their savings and opened--dare I say it?--Rain Forest Delights in 1998.

"I'd dreamed about having a restaurant since I came to Camarillo 12 years ago," she said. "I was just driving and looking around, and this place seemed perfect."

Maria grew up in Bolivia. In her hometown of Santa Cruz, her aunt runs a restaurant where each day she sells 2,000 empanadas--tasty turnovers stuffed with meat and vegetables.

"Here, I sell maybe 40, if I'm lucky," Maria said.

Even so, the place has built a following. People attending movies at the Paseo Camarillo cinemas a few doors away stop in for a post-film bite. Spanish teachers send their students over for a taste of South American cuisine muy autentico. With the help of her husband and her two teenage daughters in the kitchen, Maria was building a nice business.

Then came The Letter, on stationery dripping with more attorneys' names than there are parrots along the Amazon.

It seemed that Maria's Rain Forest Delights had drawn the attention of Rainforest Cafe Inc., an international chain of gimmicky theme restaurants based in Minneapolis.

"Our client is the owner of an incontestable federal service mark registration for 'RAINFOREST,' Registration No. 1,125,440, registered Sept. 25, 1979, for restaurant services," The Letter said. It went on to demand that Rain Forest Delights call itself something else, to avoid confusion among customers.

Maria did what anyone would do with The Letter. She certainly did what I would do.

"I ignored it," she said. "I hoped it would go away."

Of course, it didn't. More letters arrived.

Eventually, a lawyer friend shot off a caustic response to the attorneys for Rainforest Cafe Inc.