By Michelle Durham

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A local steak shop owner has filed a suit last week against the director of the US Patent and Trademark Office because of their refusal to allow him to trademark the phrase “Philadelphia’s Cheesesteak.”

For Mike Campo (in photo), busy serving steaks at Campo’s Deli, at 2nd and Market Streets in Old City, the issue is simple.

“I think it’s important to us, and I’d like to be known as ‘Philadelphia’s cheesteak,’ ” he tells KYW Newsradio. “We put out a good product and it’s different. (The trademark) is available, and I’d like to get it.”

For Campo’s attorney, Conor Cocoran, it’s much more than a beef over a steak sandwich.

“If we’re going to expand our business to Santa Barbara, California or any other place in the country, that’s what we want people to know our cheesteaks as — that they are so good, they are Philadelphia’s cheeseteak,” he says.

In a written statement, a spokesperson from the US Patent and Trademark Office said that as a matter of policy the USPTO does not comment on cases.