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[Yosemite]

Delaware North should be boycotted forever

Hiking, backpacking, running, biking, climbing, rafting, and other human-powered activities in Yosemite National Park

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Delaware North should be boycotted forever

Postby balzaccom » Thu Jan 07, 2016 9:19 am

If you know anywhere that Delaware North is trying to stay open for business in the USA, please let us know, so that we can advocate a boycott of their services. (They are no longer the concessionaire in Yosemite National Park.)

What jerks!

The U.S. Justice Department has responded publicly for the first time to the lawsuit that DNC filed over the trademark of Yosemite iconic names like the Ahwahnee and Curry Village:

“With an aggressive, 25-page lawsuit response that foreshadows more maneuvering to come, the Justice Department publicly asserts for the first time that the former Yosemite concessionaire proposed an “improper and wildly inflated” value for the trademarked park names.

The company, DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite Inc., demanded to be paid for the trademarks it valued at $44 million. The National Park Service, by contrast, said the trademarks for such park names as “The Ahwahnee” hotel were worth only $1.63 million.

“DNCY’s parent company has apparently embarked on a business model whereby it collects trademarks to the names of iconic property owned by the United States,” Justice Department attorney John H. Robertson wrote.

The parent company, Buffalo, N.Y.-based Delaware North, also has a concession at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and “has a trademark application for the name ‘Space Shuttle Atlantis,’ ” Robertson pointedly noted.”


Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/art ... 72300.html
Check our our website: http://www.backpackthesierra.com/
Or just read a good mystery novel set in the Sierra; https://www.amazon.com/Danger-Falling-Rocks-Paul-Wagner/dp/0984884963
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Re: Delaware North should be boycotted forever

Postby Phil » Thu Jan 07, 2016 10:19 am

DNCY built nothing, established nothing, owned nothing, lost their contract to merely manage services that were already well in place long before they even existed as a corporation, and now wants to usurp undeserved profits from their short history in the park, in perpetuity. There is no intellectual property that they have any legitimate right to trademark, just opportunism and exploitation of loopholes that none of us ever thought we needed to protect and defend, at its worst. I won't get into politics and the state of America, bastardization and rampant greed, but you do have to hand it to them in terms of having massive gall. Sore losers are so unbecoming and petty. Dignity and pride in our heritage is gone in this case, almost to the point of being un-American...little people running big things. Under DNC's reasoning, the State of Delaware should pay them royalties, too. Hell, maybe even the Delaware Tribe itself. They need to be defeated on principle alone, and the NPS needs to get better lawyers to write their contracts to begin with since, sadly, this appears to be the new paradigm in entrusting anything we hold dear to anyone on a for-profit basis.
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Re: Delaware North should be boycotted forever

Postby almagary » Thu Jan 14, 2016 7:18 pm

:evil: :evil: :evil: Yes, boycott until Delaware North surrenders its supposed Yosemite pladename ownership rights for $1. I emailed their PR people and sent a shame-on-you/I'm-boycotting letter to the co-CEOs: Jerry Jacobs Jr. and Lou Jacobs, Delaware North Companies Inc., 250 Delaware Ave., Buffalo NY 14202. Their contact webform is at http://www.delawarenorth.com/contact-us/contact-us-form
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Re: Delaware North should be boycotted forever

Postby Phil » Fri Jan 15, 2016 6:33 am

Here's the latest from our local paper:

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/50740 ... artslide=0

Everything but the name Yosemite National Park is being changed by the NPS.

The Awahnee is now going to be called The Majestic Yosemite Hotel

Curry Village will now be Half Dome Village

The Wawona will now be Big Trees Lodge

Badger Pass will now be the Yosemite Ski and Snowboard Area

The Yosemite Lodge at the Falls will now be the Yosemite Valley Lodge

And yes, in case you were wondering, DNC is also claiming a trademark on the name Yosemite National Park itself.

Not only are these new names ill-conceived and stupid, rather than fight the fight, the Park Service is going to try to devalue them by engaging in this ridiculous, cop-out posturing and simultaneously destroying what's solidly established in history and culture. I don't know, but maybe it's time to get the descendants of the Awahnechee Tribe (you know- 7000 years of living in the area) and the Curry family (namesakes that ran the store and lodge beginning in 1899) on-board to fight for their heritage since the NPS seems wholly unwilling to stand up for what's right. Come to think of it, the NPS doesn't really do that good a job managing the Park either...hmmm. Maybe it's time for a house cleaning across-the-board. I say let the Yosemite Conservancy run the whole shebang. In the mean time, I'm just going to go a little further out into the high country and pretend that people still hold some things sacred, have integrity, and that none of it exists beyond my next step and where I'm going to camp that night.
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Re: Delaware North should be boycotted forever

Postby Phil » Fri Jan 15, 2016 10:52 am

Let's just make this a little easier to boycott. Here's a link to DNC's complete US portfolio.

http://www.delawarenorth.com/venues

$51mil is going to look like a drop in the bucket compared to the losses that this public relations nightmare is going to create in what might be the single biggest strategic blunder in the history of hospitality management.
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Re: Delaware North should be boycotted forever

Postby balzaccom » Sat Jan 16, 2016 9:39 am

More on this story...

Delaware North, the company that has done a mediocre job running the concessions at Yosemite Park has now lost the contract to a competitor, and has now announced that it is asking to be compensated for the loss of the equity it has created in the brands names of Yosemite--such names as Wawona Hotel, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, Badger Pass Ski Area, Curry Village and the Ahwahnee Hotel. (This list updated for increased accuracy--you can't be too careful with these SOBs!)

And isn't it convenient that they don't have names...they are just the impersonal corporate entity Delaware North? So just in case you were wondering, here is a link to their "executives" webpage. Yep. All those smiling faces are the ones who made the decision to force you, the American People, to buy back the names of the treasured icons of your national parks. At a huge profit for them. http://www.delawarenorth.com/about/senior-management

y the way, the photo on this page shows an anonymous individual holding his arm up, welcoming the money that he expects to be falling from the sky as a result of this bloodsucking scheme. The NPS has decided to rename those facilities, rather than pay ransom for them to Delaware North. It makes you proud to be an American and part of the system that gave birth to Delaware North.

By the way, if you'd like to do so, you can do a web search for Delaware North to find their corporate email address so that you can send them a note to tell them exactly what you think of them. We did that. You can also get a list of the other concessions that Delaware North runs, so that you can boycott them or make their lives less pleasant. We've done that, too. Here's a link to the whole sad story: http://news.yahoo.com/yosemite-park-lan ... NlYwNzYw--
Check our our website: http://www.backpackthesierra.com/
Or just read a good mystery novel set in the Sierra; https://www.amazon.com/Danger-Falling-Rocks-Paul-Wagner/dp/0984884963
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Re: Delaware North should be boycotted forever

Postby F4RIO » Fri Apr 08, 2016 5:25 pm

This discussion has a lot of misinformation about the issue of the Yosemite place names. My strong sense is that Delaware North is not the main culprit here and just possibly is not at fault at all.

Here are some facts that I believe are correct:

1) In 1993 then concessionaire, Curry Company was owned by MCA which in turn was owned by Matsushita of Japan. The Dept. of Interior at that time determined that a foreign-owned firm could not be the concessionaire in a national park.

2) In 1993 Delaware North (DNC) takes over from Curry Company and buys their stock paying MCA about $61 million for the tangible assets AND the intangible assets including the trade-marks.

3) At that time, it was understood by all parties to this new concessionaire contract that the real property in the park would be owned by NPS and the intangible property would be transferred to subsequent concessionaires at fair market value.

4) At this point DNC commissions an appraisal that puts the fair market value of the intangible property at $51.2 million. The NPS says the value is $3.5 million.

5) This is a simple disagreement about the value of an asset. A court will decide.

6) DNC has offered to allow the new concessionaire Aramark free use if the place names until the matter is adjudicated.

So… here is my opinion: NPS (or whoever set up the bidding process for the new concessionaire) screwed this up by not clarifying the issue of the value of the intangible property in the first place.

To make matters worse, NPS decides to change the place names and thereby make the case that they have no value. This, despite the fact that they initially said they were worth $3.5 million. All a big mistake. Now everyone’s mad and to my mind that anger is naively misdirected at Delaware North. They were required to buy the intangible property in the first place and now NPS wants to change the rules. Maybe the place names are not worth $51.2 million but I'll bet that $3.5 million is even further off the mark.

Unless and until I learn otherwise I am pretty much on board with blaming the NPS for this fiasco.

BTW, I have no connection to Delaware North, Aramark or the NPS.
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Re: Delaware North should be boycotted forever

Postby Phil » Fri Apr 08, 2016 10:28 pm

We would have to be privy to the precise terms of the contract to know for sure, but there are times when you lean and when you don't. Given the nature and subject of the trademarks in question as being iconic and part of the national identity in not just name alone, I think this is where DNC is at fault. From the standpoint of the DoI and the NPS, I think they a) got blindsided by DNC actually trademarking the names in the first place, b) believed that those trademarks were were sacrosanct in ownership, but subject to use, c) wrote a very ambiguous contract with loopholes they maybe never expected to be exploited for profit in this way.

Whatever happens, it's poor PR from DNC's standpoint. The loss of good faith in the eyes of Americans might actually cost them more money in long-term lost business at their other holdings than the outright sale and release of the trademarks would net them, even at $51mil. Besides, they not only made a ton of money over the years from the exclusive use of those names, they would be able to write off the difference between what they end up getting and what they paid for them.

Although, if the NPS dictated the financial terms of the transfer of trademark value between DNC and Matsushita, DNC should be paid. Yes, the courts will be deciding this one. We'll eventually get the names of out landmarks back (and maybe the signs), but DNC won't be walking away without a chunk of change.
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Re: Delaware North should be boycotted forever

Postby Mike Pruce » Wed Apr 13, 2016 9:08 am

To me, it will always be Curry Village. As long as those that really care still call it that, as far as I'm concerned that is what it will remain!!
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Re: Delaware North should be boycotted forever

Postby F4RIO » Tue Jul 16, 2019 8:54 am

Since this matter apparently was resolved yesterday there may be some who are not clear that Delaware North Corporation (DNC) has prevailed. DNC has agreed to accept a payment of $12,000,000 as compensation for the place names that they were required to own. For some reason Aramrak is paying the bulk of this money even though it seems to clear to me the Feds or specifically NPS was at fault all along. Bottom line is that the names are back, or soon will be, and that is good news.
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