There is a famous story about the Ahwahanee Hotel in Yosemite National Park involving Teddy Roosevelt. It seems that Roosevelt arose early one morning and walked out to fish the Merced River just a few hundred yards away. On his return, he was directed to a rear entrance because his fishing togs didn’t match the dress code for guests entering through the front door. Today poor Teddy would be met by a blank stare if his greeter was Yosemite National Park Superintendent Don Neubacher. “Sorry dude,” Neubacher would say, “this isn’t the Ahwahnee Hotel, it’s the “Majestic Yosemite Hotel.”
Earlier this week Neubacher announced that the Ahwahnee Hotel, the Wawona Hotel, and Curry Village would no longer be known by those names because the current primary concessionaire claims to own the trademark to those names. A new concessionaire has been chosen to take over operation of those places and the outgoing company wants to be paid $50 million for use of the names.
That’s right, a corporation has claimed to own the trademarks to the names “Ahwanhee Hotel”, “Wawona Hotel”, “Yosemite Lodge”, “Badger Pass” and even—get this—to the name “Yosemite Natonal Park”. This corporation, DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite, Inc (DNCY) or it’s predecessor apparently trademarked those names in back in 2002 without the National Park Service’s knowledge or assent or something. In any case, they did. And when the NPS put the Yosemite concessions out to bid in July 2014, they included the option for the new concessionaire to rename the historic facilities so that they could avoid a lawsuit from DNCY. Note that DNCY took over operation of the concessions in in the early 1990s in a deal that didn’t include rights to the names.
What’s wrong with this picture?
First of all, how do you trademark the names of iconic facilities and place names that belong to all Americans? Does that mean I can trademark “Mt. Rushmore”? (Probably not, because--I’m guessing--some smart corporation has already done so.) It’s like getting a trademark for the word “duh” because you’re the producer of Dumb and Dumber and your stars say “duh” a lot, even though people have been saying “duh” since the first person said “fire good,” and the second said, well, you know what they said. Privatizing place names that you didn’t invent. Apparently it’s a thing.
Second, what was the United States Trademark and Patent office thinking when they granted the trademark? Johnson & Johnson would have a hard time getting the trademark for “Kleenex” if the name had been in prior use for 89 years, as has the name Ahwhanee Hotel, over 100 years for Yosemite National Park.
Third, why has the National Park Service done a pre-cave in their conflict with DNCY to hold onto the name by announcing that they will stop using the names? What are they, establishment Democrats? It’s like telling the court hearing this “intellectual property” dispute that, yeah, DNCY will probably win, so we want to get out of their way, but maybe you’ll give the name to us for some reason. Add the names Don Neubacher, Superintendent of Yosemite and John B. Jarvis, head of the National Park Service to your Profiles in Courage.
Fourth, who the f is Delaware North, the company that’s appropriating this national asset for their own use and profit? I’ll tell you. They operate a bunch of places you might want to boycott, including the dining, restaurants and food concessions at MetLife Stadium in New York and Busch Stadium in Saint Louis. They own and operate TD Garden in Boston and run Food Network Kitchen and Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club in airports. They own and operate gambling casinos in New York, Illinois, Florida, Arizona, West Virginia, Arkansas and Ohio. In May of 2014 they acquired Patina Restaurant Group which owns and or operates restaurants including Cafe at the Opera in San Francisco, Lincoln Ristorante at Lincoln Center in New York, Rock Center Cafe, Cucina & Co and The Sea Grill at Rockefeller Center.
The chairman of DNCY is Jeremy Jacobs, who owns the Boston Bruins. As you’d expect from a guy who would try to pull something like this, he’s a 1%er worth $3.6 billion. But that’s obviously not enough. He’s coming for the names of the places of your birthright.