PARK CITY — It's Round 2 in the fight over the "Park City" trademark, and there is no clear winner yet.

Vail Resorts, which owns Park City Mountain Resort, filed an application in May to trademark the Park City brand, meaning the resort would own the rights to the phrase "Park City."

But government leaders don't like the idea of a business owning their city's namesake. Their latest frustration came this week when the mayor says the ski resort refused to put in writing what it's been promising Park City residents.

"As a community that has existed since the mining days, we’re a little uncomfortable with the notion that someone just starts to use our name and trademarks it," Park City Mayor Jack Thomas said.

City leaders wouldn't oppose the trademark, he said, if the resort would sign an agreement saying it will not take action against the city and local businesses that use the "Park City" phrase in their branding.

The resort has not signed any agreement with the city, and Wednesday the city filed for a 60-day extension to continue the negotiations.

Bill Rock, chief operating officer at Park City Mountain Resort, sent a letter to city leaders Tuesday saying the resort is "not willing to withdraw or amend" its application for a trademark on the name Park City.

"Our company has been and will remain open to working with any business who feels our application creates any issues for them," the resort says in the letter. "But we are not willing to withdraw or amend our application, and to our knowledge, the city has never asked any other business in our community to voluntarily give up or change its trademark applications."

The mayor said he is disappointed with the resort's unwillingness to put its public statements in an official agreement.

"The City Council directed our attorneys to simply convert what we heard firsthand and publicly from Vail into a binding agreement — no more, no less," Thomas said. "And Vail balked, essentially saying just ‘trust us’ and we ‘will consider’ your concerns down the road. Well that just isn’t good enough.”

The resort is relabeling "Park City Mountain Resort" as simply "Park City." The Colorado-based corporation says a major reason for the change is to prevent other ski resorts around the country from using the Park City brand.

"The Park City mark has been in use by our predecessors for decades. Because of that history of use, guests from around the United States and around the world refer to the ski area as just 'Park City,'" the resort says in the letter.

The original trademark application was amended by Vail Resorts after city leaders expressed concerns about the services listed as "Park City."

The services registered under the trademark was narrowed to only those “providing facilities for skiing and snowboarding, and conducting classes and instruction in skiing and snowboarding,” Vail Resorts said in Tuesday's letter.

Vail Resorts bought the Park City Mountain Resort in 2014 with the goal of linking it with the Canyons Resort the company bought in 2013. The two resorts were brought together in 2015, creating the largest ski resort in the United States with 7,300 acres of terrain.

"Our letter to the council said nothing about walking away from the discussion we are having with the city on the memorandum of understanding on the trademark — a dialogue we have every expectation to continue," Rock said in a prepared statement. "Healthy partnerships mean continuing to get things done and making progress even when there is a disagreement, and we know that we won't always be in agreement on every matter. We're not asking for people to trust us outright; we know we need to build trust. It's important for people to make their voices heard and that includes filing objections if need be."

The resort recently started marketing with the phrase "Park City." The tagline underneath reads: "There is only one."

Proposed agreement

Park City leaders proposed an agreement that would address three key issues with Vail Resort's trademark. The corporation would agree not to oppose existing municipal and local business use of “Park City," broadly allow third parties in the future to also use “Park City" and avoid confusion with existing municipal and local business signage and advertising.

"We’re really concerned about the ability for municipality and local businesses to use the name 'Park City,'" Thomas said. "We want to eliminate confusion with existing municipal and local businesses which have signage, advertising and other co-existence uses."

The rights to the trademark has stirred a passionate and emotional response from the community, the mayor added.

James Buehler, who bought the Park City Pizza Co. just three months ago, said a name change would affect his business.

"If Vail is just trying to use (the trademark) for ski and snowboarding resorts only, I have no problem whatsoever with that. I understand they want to protect that," Buehler said. "But if they're using that to take over the small businesses in town and to make people change their names, yeah, that's obviously going to worry me big-time."

The Park City Pizza Co. has operated for more than 30 years, and Buehler said he couldn't see Vail Resorts going to such an extreme to put people out of business. He wants to attend town meetings to listen to both sides before deciding on an opinion.

"I hope it doesn't affect us," he said.

Park City Coffee Roasters owner Rob Habl said he wants to speed up his shop's trademark process because of the debate.

"(Vail Resorts) should have every right to trademark Park City Mountain Resort. What they shouldn't have the right to trademark is Park City," Habl said. "It's the name of a city, doesn't have anything to do with them."

Habl said his coffee shop has had issues with Vail Resorts since the corporation bought the resort in 2014.

"We had a client relationship with Park City Mountain Resort for 15 years," Habl said. "We were given nine days' notice when Vail took over to get our equipment off the mountain."

A strong community support base keeps the coffee shop running, which this year reaches its 19th year in business.

"It was the first sign of Vail being what they are today and doing what they're doing in Park City," Habl said.

Online survey

The city posted an online survey for community members to voice their concerns. More than 500 people responded since the survey was posted Wednesday, the mayor's office reported.

"The majority of the community, I think, have concerns with the trademark issue," the mayor said. "This is not a fringe movement that has raised opposition to the trademark."

The mayor is meeting with Robert Katz, the CEO of Vail Resorts, July 13 to continue discussions. Email: astilson@deseretnews.com

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