Photo by: Teri Virbickis
Steamboat has brought a lawsuit against Visit Salt Lake and the four Cottonwood canyons’ resorts for using the slogan “Ski City, USA”. The complaint was filed with the Federal District Court for the District of Colorado. The lawsuit states that Steamboat needs to protect its “Ski Town, U.S.A.” trademark.
Steamboat has been using the term “Ski Town, U.S.A.” since 1959 and has registered the phrase with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The suit claims that Visit Salt Lake and the ski resorts of Snowbird, Alta, Brighton, and Solitude violates Steamboat’s intellectual property rights by creating “confusion” and trying to “take advantage of our registered trademark for their own commercial purposes.”
“We’re pretty vigilant about informing people when we think they’ve infringed on our trademark. We’ve sent cease-and-desist letters in the past, but this is the first time we’ve filed a complaint.” – Rob Perlman, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation
They are not joking. A few years back Unofficial Networks received a cease-and-desist letter for using another one of Steamboat’s trademarked terms.
