Government loses early round in Yosemite trademark battle

WASHINGTON — The National Park Service has lost an early round of legal maneuvering over Yosemite National Park’s trademarked names, as a multi-front fight narrows to the court venue preferred by the aggrieved former concessionaire.

In a procedural move that might shape the final outcome, the federal Trademark Trial and Appeal Board this week put on hold the park service’s request to cancel certain Yosemite-area trademarks.

The board’s decision led, on Thursday, to a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge rejecting the park service’s request that she postpone consideration of a legal challenge by concessions company DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite Inc.

The dual rulings mean the concessions company, a subsidiary of the Buffalo-based Delaware North, can play offense instead of defense in a court of its own choosing. It might also speed the resolution of the Yosemite names dispute, as the trademark board had initially scheduled its hearings to take place next May.

Delaware North’s attorneys on Thursday asked Judge Patricia E. Campbell-Smith to stay the park service’s request that she postpone hearing the company’s lawsuit until the trademark board acted.

Campbell-Smith agreed, in a onepage order issued on the same day that gives the Obama administration appointee the next say in how the trademark dispute unfolds.

Until a competing company took over March 1, DNC managed Yosemite’s lodging and recreation concessions. In a move that has drawn controversy, the company secured trademark protection for some popular Yosemite-area names.

Last September, after losing the Yosemite contract to a subsidiary of Aramark, DNC sued the park service in the claims court. The company didn’t challenge the contract decision but said it was owed money for its intangible property at Yosemite, which included the trademarked names.

A study for the company valued the trademarked names at $44 million, while the park service countered that they were worth far less.

Amid the dispute, in what Delaware North called a pressure tactic, the park service changed the names of trademarked properties earlier this year.

The government also asked that its Trademark Trial and Appeal Board case against the trademarks move before the lawsuit.