Mount Washington Hotel & Resort Says Only It Can Offer Lodging Under The Name Mount Washington

from the mount-this dept

Wed, Nov 17th 2010 6:02pm — Mike Masnick

The Mount Washington Hotel & Resort is located in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, alongside (you guessed it) Mount Washington. But, apparently the operation, which has been around for a while, but which was taken over by new owners a few years back, is now sending cease and desist letters to other "lodging" businesses in the area who also use the Mount Washington name. Yes, despite taking the name themselves from the place where they are, they're now claiming that only they can use that name when it comes to lodging. The article is a little unclear, but it says they never registered a trademark on the name... but still say that the USPTO "has agreed with the company that there is a likelihood of confusion when it comes to other lodging properties that share the name." Of course, the fact that all these places have coexisted without problem for years certainly seems to suggest otherwise....

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: confusion, mount washington, trademark

13 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Joseph Durnal, 17 Nov 2010 @ 6:22pm

Ocean
I used to live in Ocean City, Maryland, a resort town. It sure seems like a good third of all businesses there have the word Ocean in their name. Using this logic, that would be to confusing for the average person to deal with.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Nov 2010 @ 6:24pm

Wait...I thought Mt. Washington was in New Hampshire? Or did we lose that too along with the Old Man of the Mountain?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Nov 2010 @ 6:24pm

I believe you meant to say "New Hampshire"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Nov 2010 @ 6:28pm

Bretton Woods is a golden place to visit.
You know, I talked with a few people and they wants to go back and visit Bretton Woods, but they don't want to be seen too extreme.

The people who would normally visit Mount Washington may just have a monetary management problem.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Nov 2010 @ 6:40pm

It's nice to see that the Ghost of Richard Nixon remains alive and well.

But for my money, if people want to visit New Hampshire, they should stay at Thayer's Inn. Thayer's Inn isn't on taxpayer-funded National Park Service property. It's quite classy. Visit http://www.thayersinn.com for more info.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
btrussell (profile), 17 Nov 2010 @ 7:03pm

I think I am going to go register "Toronto" and "Big Smoke."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Masnick (profile), 17 Nov 2010 @ 11:12pm

Re:
Wait...I thought Mt. Washington was in New Hampshire? Or did we lose that too along with the Old Man of the Mountain?

Oops. Sorry. Don't know how I screwed that up. Fixed.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
MAC, 18 Nov 2010 @ 6:03am

Mt. Washington Resort
Who bought it, Indias? And I don't mean the North American kind.

This sounds like some sort of b@!!$&it idea that they would come up with however, we are not short on stupid people either.

If I was one of the 'other' Mt. Washington resorts I'd threaten to file a suite on the basis of harrasment that interfers with the operation of my enterprise.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
MAC, 18 Nov 2010 @ 6:05am

Re: Thayers
You are right!
And Thayers is a classy place, I've stayed there myself and I highly recommend it.
Vote with your pocketbook, If they want to play this game lets see how a 'downturn' in business affects them!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
DB, 18 Nov 2010 @ 6:12am

Taxidermy
If I had a beloved cat, named Washington, who passed away, and I decided to have him preserved, could I ask the taxidermist to mount Washington?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 18 Nov 2010 @ 6:52am

Desperation is a bitch. Bought a new business and can't make it work. So I will blame it on everyone else.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
diane, 18 Nov 2010 @ 10:21am

Alienate many long term owners lately?
Personally, I woud never stay at the Mt. Washington inn...we looked at it and chose the Inn at Ellis River instead. Nicer people all the way around. I would almost bet that the new owners of the Mt Washington Inn thought the fact that "The Shining" was filmed there (or so the old owners boasted) would be a crowd drawer (even though it isn't), and thought they should alienate every other inn owner in the area. It's too bad and I'm sure the other owners will now pull the pamplets advertising the tours at the Mt Washington Inn.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Gene Cavanaugh, 18 Nov 2010 @ 10:54pm

Mt Washington
Agreed, and I will add that I am most disturbed about the erosion of the concept of a trademark as something UNIQUELY identifying the holder!
I would be surprised and very disappointed to hear that the USPTO agreed with such flagrant abuse.
[ link to this | view in thread ]