Door County pizza trademark lawsuit heads to court

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A lawsuit filed in 2025 by one Door County pizza restaurant owner against another over what it alleges is trademark infringement is advancing in federal court as the two sides took to social media to defend themselves over the past week, the owners of the plaintiff are embroiled in another dispute over another property, and the defendant said they’re selling their property.

Wild Tomato Pizza, LLC, with restaurants in Sister Bay and Fish Creek, claims in its suit that Wild Man Pizza, Inc., just north of Sturgeon Bay in Carlsville, infringed on its federally registered trademarks for “Wild Tomato Pizza” and “Wild Tomato Wood-Fired Pizza and Grille” as well as common law trademark rights – those obtained by repeated use in association with a specific business or product – to the terms “Wild,” “Go Wild,” “Order Wild” and “Wild Tomato” and Wild Tomato’s scowling, spike-haired logo.

Wild Tomato, which first opened in Fish Creek in 2008 and opened its second location in Sister Bay in 2014, claims that Wild Man’s own scowling, spike-haired logo and use of the term “wild” in its name and marketing since it began advertising in late 2024 and opened in June 2025 created confusion that led consumers to believe the two pizzerias were affiliated with each other.

Because of that, the suit alleges, Wild Man, whose restaurant is called Wild Man Pizza and Barbecue, profited from and damaged the name and reputation Wild Tomato established over the years, “causing competitive harm to Wild Tomato.”

The suit seeks damages from Wild Man as well as Red Oak Winery, where Wild Man is located and which is associated with the pizzeria, and Hunter Ashley Properties, LLC, which owns the property where Wild Man and Red Oak are located. All are owned and operated by the Wagener family.

For its part, Wild Man has a federal trademark that was filed in April 2025 and registered Jan. 26 on its “Wild Man Grill – Pizza – BBQ” name and logo, operator and pizza chef Paige Wagener showed in a video posted April 20 on her TikTok page. Other videos on her page from the past week question if the term “Wild” has become a common law trademark. A video posted April 15 by Wagener generated more than 2.2 million views and another video later that day drew more than 116,000.

Wild Tomato co-owner Karla Sagorac subsequently appeared in a video posted April 17 on the Wild Tomato TikTok page to give a statement saying “this situation is not about a single word” and reiterating its position that its name, logo and concept are federally protected, that they brought their concerns to Wild Man and resorted to legal action when those concerns weren’t answered satisfactorily. The statement, which also said social media isn’t the place to try the case, also was posted to Wild Tomato’s Facebook page.

Attorneys for Wild Tomato sent a cease-and-desist letters to Wild Man in March 2025 demanding it immediately stop using Wild Tomato marks and remove all advertising and signage using the term “wild” in connection with their pizzeria and grill. It followed with similar letters to Red Oak and Hunter Ashley demanding they insist Wild Man comply with the cease-and-desist.

When the three entities did not comply with the cease-and-desist requests, Wild Tomato filed suit April 11, 2025, in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Wisconsin. Along with asking the court to stop the use of the Wild Man name and logo and other references to “wild” in its restaurant business, and turn over or destroy all such materials, it also asks for monetary damages in the profits made by Wild Man, profits Wild Tomato claims it lost because of the alleged confusion, cost of “corrective advertising” paid by Wild Tomato, and other costs.

Wild Man subsequently filed a counterclaim seeking to cancel Wild Tomato’s trademarks because Wild Tomato didn’t make claims against other pizzerias also using “wild” in their names or marketing, but that was dismissed in December 2025 by U.S. District Judge Brett Conway of the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, in her April 15 TikTok video that generated 2.2 million views, Wagener said the property where Wild Man and Red Oak are located will be put up for sale, citing both the lawsuit and “the changing tourism of Door County.” She said the pizzeria and winery plan to continue operating into the summer.

A settlement conference on the suit is scheduled for June 15 in the U.S. Eastern District of Wisconsin Court in Green Bay. Wild Tomato requested a jury trial in its suit.

Wild Tomato is co-owned by Matt and Karla Sagorac, who bought it from founder Britt Unfeker near the end of 2023. Their Sagorac Enterprises, LLC, owns 10 acres of Egg Harbor waterfront property where the Alpine Resort lodge and cottages are located, and it recently blocked the owners and staff of Alpine Resort Acquisition Co., the resort operator, from accessing the property because of allegations of unpaid rent and violations of the lease. A news release from the resort said it was negotiating terms of a deal with Sagorac but the terms were changing, leading the resort to end negotiations.

The property includes a more-than-100-year-old lodge that has been a source of great controversy in Egg Harbor over the past year as Sagorac sought to raze the structure, which was deemed unsafe by the village fire chief and an engineer and divide the property into five lots for individual full-time housing over strong objections from local preservationists.