Our View: Better ways to spend $1 million

Some people are angry that a private company would try to commandeer the well-known names of places in Yosemite National Park. Others are angry the National Park Service ever let it get to this.

Editorial writers from San Diego to Santa Rosa criticized the National Park Service, outgoing concessionaire Delaware North Co. and even the choices for replacement names. Bee columnist Jeff Jardine worries this ridiculous controversy could spread to our valley, and columnist Dick Hagerty blew steam at the park service Sunday.

We’re more upset about the money.

Park service spokesman Scott Gediman told McClatchy News Service reporter Michael Doyle it could cost “well over $1 million” to make new signs, take down old signs and replace them. That doesn’t include the cost of updating backpacks, water bottles and ball caps bearing the names of these places. Or travel guides, T-shirts or even stuffed bears.

If we understand this correctly, the park service intends to spend that $1 million on signs that will simply confuse people. Consider: If you booked a room at the Ahwahnee six months ago, will you be looking for “The Majestic Yosemite Hotel” when you arrive next May?

The park service intends to fight this in court and we think it will prevail. When that happens, we can all go back to calling our beloved Yosemite icons by their real names – just as soon as we have spent another $1 million to make more signs, take down the signs we just put up and then install even newer signs with the old names.

Delaware North Co. told Doyle it offered to let the Park Service continue using the old names until the dispute is settled. While we’re thoroughly disgruntled that anyone would claim these names in the first place, it doesn’t make sense not to accept that offer. After all, the company still has contracts with the park service in Sequoia National Park and the Kennedy Space Center. Perhaps Delaware North is trying to keep up at least the appearance of a working relationship with their landlord.

Meanwhile, this might be resolved before going to court. Public outrage could convince Delaware North to back away from its ransom demands. Knowing that, wouldn’t it be a nice gesture if the company gave those place names to the American people? Not that we think the company legitimately owns them, but it could keep this out of court.

In the meantime, we wonder what rock the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been hiding under. Anyone who would accept an application to trademark names already in use on public buildings for up to a century should have their heads examined. Lawyers in the trademark office should be busy protecting our interests, not allowing a too-clever vendor to usurp our rights.

When the trademark office gets around to reviewing Delaware North’s new application to trademark for the names “Space Shuttle Atlantis” and “Wuksachi Lodge” we hope its application gets the treatment it deserves.

Instead of spending a $1 million on making temporary changes, spend it on training the numbskulls who allowed this ridiculous lawsuit to arise in the first place. Or finding their replacements.

This story was originally published January 18, 2016 at 3:33 PM with the headline "Our View: Better ways to spend $1 million."