Earlier today, the US National Parks Service announced that it had settled a suit brought by the previous concessionaire at Yosemite National Park, Delaware North (DNC). Although the announcement didn't mention a dollar amount, other news sources put the figure at $12 million, far less than what DNC had initially sought. DNC is to transfer all Yosemite-related trademark and service mark registrations to the current concessionaire, Aramark, which will in turn transfer these to the NPS when Aramark's contract expires in 2031. Aramark will also get some tangible assets. Neither TESS nor PACER reflect these changes yet, but presumbably they will be updated in the coming days.
Practically, the main effect of the settlement will be that people can once again buy "Yosemite National Park" T-shirts in Yosemite Valley. By the time I'm done writing this blog post, Curry Village, the Ahwahnee Hotel and the Wawona Hotel will have reverted to those names, as most of the signage with the "new" names was temporary, and even the bus drivers often called the places by the older names. And DNC wasn't trying to corner the market on names like Lembert Dome or Matthes Crest.
We blogged about this case previously here and here. While the settlement was expected, it's too bad that DNC got as much as it did for trying to hijack place names that never belonged to it. Sometimes, as Woody Allen noted, crime definitely pays.