A Missouri theme park that attracts more than 2 million visitors per year is suing a Southern California man who built a dark ride in his garage for Halloween over who owns the trademarked name.

But the Silver Dollar City theme park in Branson, Missouri, didn’t throw the first punch. That surprising first blow was delivered by Scott D’Avanzo.

“I’m confident we’ll win in the end,” said D’Avanzo, 45, of Ladera Ranch (Orange County). “We’re small and they’re big bullies.”

For the past few years, D’Avanzo has built a theme park-style dark ride in the two-car garage of his Ladera Ranch home and welcomed thousands of visitors at Halloween to take a spin.

D’Avanzo called the ride Mystic Motel and dreamed of building bigger theme park attractions one day — so much so that he trademarked the Mystic Motel name for theme park attractions in 2013. He founded a company called Adrenalin Attractions to develop his dream of one day building a theme park with the Mystic Motel ride as its centerpiece.

That’s where Silver Dollar City comes in. In August, the Missouri theme park announced plans to build the $20 million Mystic River Falls river rapids ride in 2020 as part of a new themed land.

D’Avanzo’s attorney sent a letter to Silver Dollar City in late September demanding that the park change the name of the Mystic River Falls ride because it infringed on the Mystic Motel ride’s trademarked name. Silver Dollar City responded with a 16-page lawsuit that accused D’Avanzo and Adrenalin Attractions of trademark infringement, unfair competition and an implied legal threat.

Silver Dollar City has asked the U.S. District Court to declare that the Missouri theme park owns the trademark rights to the Mystic River Falls name. And one more thing: Silver Dollar City wants D’Avanzo to change the name of the ride in his garage.

The civil lawsuit states that Silver Dollar City acquired the trademark for the Mystic River Falls name from the U.S. Patent office in September and never heard any opposition from D’Avanzo during the months-long process.

Silver Dollar City declined to comment due to the legal nature of the situation, said theme park spokeswoman Lisa Rau via email.

Adrenalin Attractions is in development discussions with investors and amusement park vendors to build a Mystic City theme park at an undisclosed location in California, D’Avanzo said. The $2 billion theme park will feature 35 attractions including dark rides, roller coasters and a water ride, he said.

“We just don’t want to have 14 different attractions with Mystic on them,” D’Avanzo said in a phone interview. “It just muddies the waters.”

Adrenalin Attractions also sent a trademark infringement letter earlier this year related to the name of the $15 million Mystic Timbers roller coaster that opened in 2017 at Kings Island, D’Avanzo said. Lawyers for the Ohio amusement park told D’Avanzo’s attorney that they considered the matter closed, he said.

D’Avanzo built the Mystic Motel dark ride with his son, Ashton, now 15, in the garage of their suburban home in Ladera Ranch, a master planned bedroom community in an unincorporated part of Orange County near Mission Viejo.

Set in an abandoned 1955 desert motel along Route 66, Mystic Motel takes visitors through the decrepit interior of a deteriorating motor lodge and into its haunted basement. Along the way you peek into a bustling casino, explore derelict motel rooms and step into a diner for a refreshment.