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parklover
I agree that getting the trademarks rescinded is a strategic plan. I just hope that this does not drag on for years. One thing I saw this morning on the Aramark website is that the Bracebridge Dinner is again called that and not the Yosemite Yuletime Dinner or what ever it was being called.
Sounds rather odd. That was one of the registrations that YP&CC secured in the 80s. If anything, it's one of the trademarks where there really is a portability of the name. It's also something that was definitely developed and owned by YP&CC. I'm wondering how Aramark's attorneys approached this.
If someone had been paying attention back around 1992-1993, this would have never become and issue. Delaware North wouldn't have blinked an eye if they had been required to turn over any registered/unregistered intellectual property.
Also - the numbers that Delaware North trots out are suspect. They say they paid $61.5 million back in 1993 and in current dollars that's over $100 million. They only got somewhere under $30 million for the physical assets, and they claim they just want what they paid back. However, their purchase of the YP&CC stock included the buildings, which they immediately turned over. How much do you suppose those buildings were worth? Essentially buying those buildings on behalf of NPS was the cost of entering the market. It's disingenuous to claim that somehow that $61.5 million number has any correlation with what they're owed for assets in 2016.
Also - a lot of these companies made out like bandits. MCA was essentially forced to sell YP&CC, but they ended up with an agreement that they receive all the profits until the new concessionaire took over. The National Parks Foundation bought YP&CC for $51 million, so they turned a cool profit in those two years. Delaware North got 23 years of profits from the concession, including a lot of years where they operated on short-term contracts pending public bids.