The kati roll is a traditional Indian street food that consists of various fillings — chicken tikka, paneer cheese, mixed vegetables, potatoes and egg — wrapped in a layered paratha, a kind of Indian flatbread.

That much is not in dispute.

When Payal Saha, a native of Kolkata, the city formerly known as Calcutta, where the snack originated, opened the Kati Roll Company, in 2002 in Greenwich Village, it was, she said, the first restaurant of its kind in the United States. She now has three Kati Roll Company locations in New York and one in London.

In February, a competitor, Kati Junction, opened on West 40th Street, about four blocks away from the Kati Roll Company’s location on West 39th Street. To Ms. Saya, the place looked a bit too familiar. The orange and white color scheme. The open-kitchen layout. The hats and aprons worn by the employees. The employees themselves.

Ms. Saha responded by filing a lawsuit against Kati Junction, alleging that it was infringing on her trademark and had unfairly appropriated her recipes, her menu, her layout and her color scheme, and had hired some of her former workers, including a former manager, to avail itself of her trade secrets. Last month, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin of Federal District Court in Manhattan issued a ruling permitting the suit to proceed.