Yosemite: Famed Ahwahnee Hotel to change name in trademark dispute

He said the park service is fighting for the rights to the original names.

According to the National Park Service, DNCY or its predecessor had previously trademarked or service-marked several nationally significant properties in the park without the prior concurrence of the Park Service, including The Ahwahnee Hotel, Badger Pass, Curry Village, Wawona Hotel, and Yosemite Lodge. The San Francisco Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press have stories.

He says the park service doesn’t agree with Delaware North’s claims to the trademarks as they predate the company’s involvement in Yosemite, and they challenge the company’s valuation.

In this 2011 photo, tents are seen in Curry Village in Yosemite National Park. The National Park Service has chose to re-name historic landmarks, including hotels and a ski area to avoid paying millions of dollars.

The trademark dispute at Yosemite and elsewhere feeds into a debate about the fate of other names synonymous with national parks and government-owned entities across the country. The Yosemite Lodge at the Falls will become Yosemite Valley Lodge.

The famed Ahwahnee is slated to become The Majestic Yosemite Hotel.

The concession company’s complaint, filed last September, does not seek to overturn the park service’s award of the new 15-year Yosemite concessions contract to the Philadelphia-based Aramark. “We’re taking this action to ensure the seamless transition”.

DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite Inc., a subsidiary of Delaware North, said in a written statement that it was “shocked and disappointed” that the park service is using the names as a “bargaining chip”.

“Our only interest is selling them on to the new concessionaire for fair value”, the company said in a statement.

In the interim, the company has offered to license the use of the trademarks for free so that the iconic names could continue to be used while the legal dispute plays out in the courts.

The name changes don’t sit well with park admirers like John Lenau, an amateur historian and president of the Conference of California Historical Societies. You can find it miles down the road in the people who love it. Thomas Pond who lives in Oakhurst said, “I worked up there for 22 years, for the park up there…I went through three different changes”.

Wawona Hotel is now the Big Trees Lodge.