Yosemite Park to change landmark names

This is not a joke.

Now 76, he’s visited Yosemite since childhood and says when somebody mentions Curry Village he can picture it in his head.

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 concession company does not seek to overturn the park service’s award of the new $2 billion, 15-year Yosemite concessions contract to Aramark.

“We feel we have to change the names”, Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said Thursday.

Park officials are making the changes to avoid disruptions to visitors with reservations during the transition to a new concessionaire, Aramark, on March 1. Ideally, the government would own these marks, and it could license them to concessions operators for the duration of their contracts. Curry Village would become Half Dome Village.

Visitors headed to Yosemite National Park this year might notice a few changes. That name he said is in the public domain and the name of the park itself will not change. It claims that Delaware North had no authorization when, in, 2002, it filed applications to trademark everything from the names of Yosemite’s iconic hotels to the very name of the park.

The company contended it should be paid this money if another company secured the Yosemite contract.

“(DNCY) is shocked and disappointed that the National Park Service would announce unnecessary changes to the beloved names of places in Yosemite National Park”, the company wrote in a response.

DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite, Inc., an arm of Delaware North, which is run by Boston Bruins’ owner Jeremy Jacobs, is offering the incoming concessionaire an opportunity to buy the trademarks for million.

Justice Department attorney John Robertson wrote in court papers that the company “wildly inflated” the value of the trademark names at $51 million. He added that Delaware North has “breached its duty of good faith and fair dealing”.

Instead, the suit seeks an unspecified amount of damages from the park service. And Delaware North seems to view this trick as a business model: It also has concessions at the Kennedy Space Center and Sequoia National Park, and – surprise – it has applied to trademark the words “Space Shuttle Atlantis” and “Wuksachi Lodge”.

Lenau also worries about stripping away the Native American heritage of Yosemite by turning the Ahwahnee into the Majestic Yosemite Hotel and the Wawona Hotel to Big Trees Lodge.