Yosemite National Park not allowed on merchandise
By Kurtis Alexander, San Francisco Chronicle
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK — The trademark spat that is prompting the National Park Service to change the names of a handful of treasured sites at Yosemite, including the Ahwahnee Hotel and Curry Village, has taken a startling turn — to the park’s gift shops.
Merchandise embossed with the name “Yosemite National Park,” from T-shirts to coffee mugs to pens, will be pulled from store shelves this week because of claims by the park’s outgoing concessionaire that it owns the name for commercial purposes, according to the park’s new operator, Aramark, which is based in Philadelphia.
Aramark officials, who on Tuesday take the reins of Yosemite’s many hotels, restaurants and shops from longtime management company Delaware North, plan to begin selling souvenir items with the name “Yosemite” instead of “Yosemite National Park.”