Posted by Jim DeWitt on December 27, 2014 at 1:31 AM
Giving greedy corporations a bad name...
Posted by Ross Warner on December 27, 2014 at 1:25 PM
So the U.S. Federal Patent & Trademark Office is run by idiots. Oh wait, it is part of the government. Sorry it was a genius decision.
Posted by D.A. Edwards on December 29, 2014 at 9:03 PM
Thanks for posting this Paul. Infuriating for sure. I'm surprised that some evil corporation(s) hasn't copyrighted lots of things we take for granted. I hope Delaware North loses the concessionaire bid. I don't care if they do have to change the names and this is coming from someone that stayed at the Wawona just a few weeks ago. Everyone will still verbally call them by their proper names... they can't stop that. Or can they?
Posted by Ed Cordes on December 30, 2014 at 7:32 PM
I am certainly not a lawyer. However, seems to me that the names were in place long ago. Even under the old Curry corporation. A concession contract grants the right to manage the properties. Ownership is not granted or transferred to a concessionaire. So, as the contract falls to each new corporation it is the management rights the Park Service is granting. The Park Service is merely an agent of the American People so I believe "We The People" own the names. I agree, this entire thing sounds like extortion and must be stopped.
The Associated Press reports Jim Stellmack, director of marketing for DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite, said the park service has long recognized the existence of intellectual property rights in concession contracts.
Park spokesperson Scott Gediman says that the names are a part of Yosemite, but the park could change them to protect other bidders from the added cost ($51 Million) of buying them.
It would be a tragedy for the NPS to have to rename the iconic places in Yosemite to prevent this outrageous corporate greed. At least to me, these names belong to the people, and thus, DNC nor anyone else has no claim to them.
Could you imagine the Ahwahnee Hotel being called the "DotCom Hotel", or something else just as hideous? Sheesh!
As a long time Yosemite habitué, I find the whole thing repugnant.
Discussion
5 repliesYosemite Names
It would be a tragedy for the NPS to have to rename the iconic places in Yosemite to prevent this outrageous corporate greed. At least to me, these names belong to the people, and thus, DNC nor anyone else has no claim to them.
Could you imagine the Ahwahnee Hotel being called the "DotCom Hotel", or something else just as hideous? Sheesh!
As a long time Yosemite habitué, I find the whole thing repugnant.
--P