A legal dispute over who owns trademarks to iconic Yosemite National Park lodgings likely will drag on for another year at least/NPS

An ongoing impasse over the value of trademarks held by DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite is pointing to a lengthy legal battle between the concessionaire and the federal government, one likely to drag on for another year at least.

While there had been a glimmer of hope just a month ago that the parties could settle the matter through mediation, in a Joint Status Report (attached below) filed last week their attorneys said they "do not believe that settlement is likely at this time."

At the crux of the matter is whether DNCY has a valid right to trademarks for The Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, Curry Village, Wawona Hotel, and other place-names in Yosemite National Park and, if so, what is the value of those trademarks?

While the federal government maintains the concessionaire doesn't have the right to "an unending trademark in the names of United States-owned property," it also argues that any value DNCY held in the trademarks vanished on March 1, 2016, when a new concessaire took over the lodging, dining, and retail operations in Yosemite.

In countering that argument, DNCY's attorneys maintain there was value in the trademarks on February 29, 2016, and that the company should have been compensated for that value by the new park concessionaire, Yosemite Hospitality, LLC, a subsidiary of Aramark, which would then have received the trademarks when it began operations. They also contend that the federal government breached its contract with DNCY by not requiring Aramark to purchase the trademarks as part of the Yosemite contract.

"Defendant (the United States) seems to contend that the validity of DNCY's trademark registrations after DNCY's contract expired will somehow be important in the determination of the 'fair value' of the trademarks before the contract expired," they argued in the status report. "This argument, however, ignores the fact that defendant's breach is the only reason why DNCY, rather than the current concessioner, has continued to hold those registrations after the contract expired."

The issue of trademarking words attached to properties in the National Park System arose in 2014, when the Park Service released a prospectus for a 15-year contract involving concessions at Yosemite. During the process, DNCY, which has held the concessions business in Yosemite since 1993, notified the Park Service that it held "intellectual property" rights in the form of trademarks attached to lodgings in the park and that it should be paid for those rights if it lost the concessions contract.

National Park Service officials have placed a $3.5 million value on the intellectual property rights attached to names of lodges in Yosemite, a fraction of the $51 million valuation claimed by DNCY for its intellectual property and other intangible assets at the park. Regarding the intellectual property alone, DNCY placed a $44 million value on that, a sum the federal government claims is "grossly exaggerated."

This past January the Park Service decided that, to avoid a legal battle that might interfere with the changeover in concessionaires on March 1, it would change the property names in Yosemite. Thus The Ahwahnee Hotel became the Majestic Yosemite Hotel, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls is being referred to as Yosemite Valley Lodge, Curry Village is now Half Dome Village, Wawona Hotel has become Big Trees Lodge, and Badger Pass Ski Area is being called Yosemite Ski & Snowboard Area.

Interior Department attorneys had tried to wrest the trademarks from DNCY by appealing to the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, but in May that board suspended action on the matter due to the legal battle between the Park Service and DNCY in U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C.

Under the proposed discovery schedule presented by both parties, pre-trial machinations could run at least through next July.

Additional background on the trademark dispute in Yosemite and elsewhere in the National Park System can be found in these Traveler stories:

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2014/12/what-value-ahwahnee-hotel-c...

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2014/12/historian-says-delaware-nor...

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2015/01/yosemite-trademark-discussi...

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2015/01/us-code-might-allow-nationa...

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2015/01/xanterra-parks-resorts-make...

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2015/01/national-park-service-will-...

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2015/02/new-prospectus-grand-canyon...

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2015/03/xanterra-parks-resorts-aban...

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2015/09/delaware-north-companies-su...

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2015/10/new-yosemite-concessionaire...

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2016/01/government-calls-delaware-n...

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2016/01/dnc-says-national-park-serv...