Saturday, January 23, 2016

Slow Saturday Special: Yogi Bear Found in Yosemite

He was hanging out with Grizzly Adams:

"Iconic names at Yosemite are subject of $51 million trademark battle" by Megan Woolhouse and Janelle Nanos Globe Staff  January 16, 2016

Jeremy Jacobs Sr., owner of the Boston Bruins and TD Garden, is locked in an unusual trademark fight with the US government, a standoff that the National Park Service said has forced it to rename a landmark hotel and other sites at historic Yosemite National Park.

Hey, what'$ in a name anyway?

A Jacobs company, DNC Parks and Resorts at Yosemite, has run lodges, restaurants, and retail outlets at the popular park in California since 1993. After losing the concession contract last year, it went to court seeking compensation for what it says is $51 million of intellectual property, including trademarks on everything from ski and golf areas to the Yosemite National Park name itself.

Government attorneys have valued the intellectual property at about $3.5 million, and called DNC Parks’ estimate “grossly exaggerated and improper.”

The National Park Service is worried the dispute could prevent it from using the names when the contract is turned over to the new concession operator, Aramark, on March 1.

Don't they handle concessions at Fenway?

That concern prompted Yosemite National Park Superintendent Don Neubacher to announce Thursday that he is changing the names of some well-known facilities at the park, including the famed Ahwahnee Hotel, which was built in 1927 and still offers afternoon tea service.

Scott Gediman, a spokesman for Yosemite, said the park would change the names to avoid liability or the potential for closures as a result of the ongoing court battle.

Yosemite, which spans more acreage than the state of Rhode Island, is home to Half Dome, a 4,700-foot-high granite crest that is one of the park’s most recognizable features. It is also the onetime stamping ground of John Muir, Scottish-American naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club.

Today, the park draws more than 4 million visitors a year, and a 15-year concessions contract at Yosemite is valued at about $2 billion. The contract is the largest in the vast National Park system.

DNC Parks is part of Jacobs’s Delaware North Cos., a Buffalo-based hospitality and food services company with $3 billion in annual revenue last year. Jacobs has owned the Bruins since 1975.

The lawsuit against the government filed by DNC Parks and Resorts at Yosemite, a subsidiary of Delaware North, cites fundamental unfairness over how the contract was awarded. DNC operates concessions at nine other national parks, including Yellowstone and Grand Canyon, Gediman said.

The trademarking case won national attention this week in an article published by Outside magazine that prompted the Sierra Club to launch a campaign Friday demanding that DNC withdraw its lawsuit. The club encouraged its 2.4 million members and supporters to write to Jacobs personally to tell him to drop the litigation, calling the case an instance of corporate greed by a company that is already benefiting from a lucrative public contract.

Why did GE moving to Bo$ton just cro$$ my mind?

“These are public assets, names that belong to all Americans,” said Dan Chu, a senior director at Sierra Club....

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RelatedRunkeeper launches merchandise business

Speaking of which, it's time for me to run.