Yosemite place names up for grabs?

Disturbing concept. You see it with sports venues and other "sponsored" facilities - but national parks?
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/hijacking-yosemite/Content?oid=4151574

Congress could likely fix this problem easily, but I suspect Yosemite's biggest advocate, my fine Congressman, who has the park in his district, would not want the heavy hand of government impeding the ability of "small business" to make an honest buck. Hope I'm wrong.

This is a ploy by Delaware North to keep its contract. They're trying to scare off other bidders. I don't think their claim would stand up in court but it might take years to resolve. Most companies don't want the hassle.

Simple extortion attempt - and quite disgusting. I really don't see how they can trademark the name that existed PRIOR to their concession agreement, though...

Right. Here's how the scam came about. When Delaware North got the concession, it got control of the names, too, like the Ahwahnee and Curry Village. That's normal business...no one else can use those names while the concessionaire has them. But Delaware North claims that it was given ownership of those names. To keep!

No doubt they have some lawyer that has some piece of paper that seems to say that. See:

http://news.yahoo.com/dispute-could-lead-name-changes-yosemite-180258330.html

But, of course, no one ever thought that the name didn't stay with the objects and the concession, until these guys came out of the woodwork with this theory. Under the American legal system, even a worthless claim can be postponed and re-argued so as to block any other possible user for years. So they can scare off other potential bidders.

Remember that nearly every legislator is also a lawyer, so there is never any incentive to pass laws that simplify the legal system or speed up the process.

Bah, humbug.