NH hotel sparking mountain of a legal challenge

[November 12, 2010]  CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- New Hampshire's Mount Washington is famous for its bad weather. But a different storm is brewing as the new owners of a historic hotel fight to keep the peak's name for themselves.

State lawmaker Ed Butler said Thursday that the Florida-based company that owns the 108-year-old Mount Washington Hotel and Resort has told other businesses with "Mount Washington" in their name to stop using it -- or face a legal challenge.

Officials with the company that bought the hotel in Bretton Woods in 2006, CNL Lifestyle Co., say that the name was never trademarked and that they are reaching out to only three other lodging businesses with "Mount Washington" in their name, all in northern New Hampshire.

"We're not about trying to put a fence around the name 'Mount Washington' as it could relate to other businesses," said Stephen Rice, senior vice president of CNL. "Those properties have nothing to fear."

He said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has agreed with the company that there is a likelihood of confusion when it comes to other lodging properties that share the name.

Rice said the company has invested millions in the hotel and resort to bring it back to its turn-of-the century days.

"It was important for us as we made these investments to make sure that that the name would always belong to the Mount Washington, and be there to support the image and the reputation and the brand that it is," he said.

Two of the businesses, which they declined to name, have been working with them on a solution; the third has not been formally contacted yet.

For decades Mount Washington, at 6,288 feet the Northeast's highest peak, held the world record for the strongest wind gust -- a 231-mph breeze recorded in April 1934. Ten years later, the hotel was the setting for a conference that laid the groundwork for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

In an area where the mountain's name is stamped on everything from the local chamber of commerce to a towing company, some people aren't happy about CNL's efforts.

"I don't know how they could do it," said Ned Sullivan of North Conway, who owns Mount Washington Valley Vacation Rentals for 10 years. He said he didn't receive a letter but was upset nonetheless.

"I guess you're not afraid to move into the neighborhood and make a huge stink, as they are," he said.

Butler, chairman of the House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee and owner of an inn in Hart's Location, said he first heard about the hotel's request in September from another small business owner. The owner received a letter from the hotel and CNL saying they were challenging the use of "Mount Washington" in the business name.

"They contacted me and were outraged, and subsequently, I was outraged," said Butler, who declined to name the business. "They are currently in legal challenges to the cease-and-desist order that they received, and I am not at liberty to get them involved."

The Associated Press left messages seeking comment at the Mount Washington Bed and Breakfast in nearby Shelburne and the Mount Washington Valley Inn in North Conway. Neither called back.

Larry Magor, managing director of the hotel, said the company is trying to protect the resort's identity, not patent the name.

Rice cited Pinehurst, N.C. as an example.

"Pinehurst has been trademarked to apply to the famous golf course there and resort that includes it, even though there is a long history of the use of Pinehurst in other applications," he said.

"The community, as I understand it, has actually come together about that, because they realize they've been able to protect an iconic asset that is very much a foundation of the economy of that region, just as Mount Washington serves as a same anchor for a regional tourism economy."

[Associated Press; By KATHY McCORMACK]

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