The National Park Service isn’t quite ready to let go of some of the historic names scattered around Yosemite National Park. After the news that the park would have to change the monikers on several hotels, camping villages, and other areas of the park after ending a longterm deal with the concessions company that owns the trademark on those sites, the NPS is ready to fight over those trademarks.
The agency formally urged the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to cancel the trademark registrations for the Yosemite sites that are owned by the park’s former concessionaire, The Sacramento Bee reports.
“These registrations are causing damage and injury to the National Park Service,” Interior Department attorneys stated in a filing with the trademark board.
Attorneys for the former concessioner say the demands are “particularly astounding,” and that they’re urging the trademark board to hold off on a decision until a separate lawsuit is resolved in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
“It is clear that (the park service’s) cancellation petition is simply a tactic in the ongoing litigation,” attorneys for DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite told the trademark board earlier this month.
Things won’t be settled any time soon: the trademark board proceedings will likely last through May 2017 at least, and the separate battle in claims court could also drag on.
“We’ll see what comes out of the court of claims and the trademark board,” Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said Thursday.
After DNC lost its 15-year Yosemite concession contract to another company, it sued the park service in claims court for what it says is the value of its intellectual property, the trademarks.
The park service announced last month that it would stop using trademarked Yosemite names like the Ahwahnee Hotel as of March 1.
U.S. steps up fight over Yosemite names, asking trademarks be canceled [The Sacramento Bee]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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