I know the Ahwahnee Hotel is the most mentioned name in these discussions. In my opinion the irony is that "The Ahwahnee" is the best case that Delaware North legitimately owns a trademark for a Yosemite property, as the trademark was registered when the former concessionaire had a possessory interest in the building, and wasn't registered around 2002 when NPS had possessory interest in the building. There may however be a case that the trademark for "The Ahwahnee" should have been transferred to NPS and not to Delaware North.
However, over the years, NPS has required concessionaires to sell of their assets for new contracts. They have been paying for such properties, although with Yosemite they kind of lucked out with MCA being bought by Matsushita and a "foreign ownership" scare basically transferring the assets at a cut rate to the National Park Foundation and then the National Parks Foundation donating the buildings to NPS in the process before Delaware North won the next contract. Of the large national park concessionaires, Xanterra is likely not going to try forcing any assertion of trademarks after NPS objected to their mass attempt to trademark several Grand Canyon property names. Also, Aramark is now on record that these names belong to the federal government and the people. Delaware North seems to be alone now in their belief that such trademarks can belong to a private company.
I think I'll try reposting this to the LA Times comment section.
