Charging that Delaware North Companies seeks to bolster its bottom line by securing trademarks to iconic U.S.-owned properties and then "wildly inflates" their value, the U.S. Justice Department has asked a federal claims court to toss out DNC Parks & Resort's multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the government.

The strongly worded 25-page filing (attached below) aims to topple DNC's $10 million+ claim against the government that was filed in September after the concessionaire lost the lucrative Yosemite National Park concessions contract to competitor Aramark Leisure. In that claim, DNC alleged breach of contract by the Park Service for its failure to require an Aramark subsidiary, Yosemite Hospitality, LLC, to purchase DNC's intangible properties after landing the Yosemite contract.

The Park Service had initially inserted an amendment to the concessions contract stating that any new concessionaire, other than DNC, would have to purchase DNC's intangible property, but later withdrew that requirement. However, in a letter dated Dec. 31, 2015, the Park Service again reversed course, and said Aramark would have to purchase DNC's trademark holdings.

While DNC said its $51.2 million valuation ($44 million for the trademarks and servicemarks and $7 million for customer database and Internet-related assets) for its trademarks on iconic Yosemite buildings was determined by CONSOR Intellectual Asset Management, the National Park Service's outside appraiser, Dornbusch and Associates, determined the trademarks and other intellectual property claimed by DNC held a $3.5 million value.

"Thus, (DNC's) value of its trademarks and servicemarks, at $44 million, is 27 times the amount of the $1.63 million value estimated by NPS," said the government's response, which was filed Monday.

"The CONSOR Report is fundamentally flawly and grossly inaccurate because it sets forth a valuation methodology that ignores the unique paradigm of a concession within a National Park: namely, that the underlying properties are owned by the United States in a National Park where it is the unique, natural surroundings that draw visitors to the parks -- and to the concessions -- and not the strength of a particular hotel's or restaurant's 'trade' name,'" the government agued. "Furthermore, to the degree that there is good will or trade facilitation present with respect to the name of a particular Government-owned property, that goodwill or trade facilitation is primarily the result of the properties themselves and their location within the National Park, both of which are owned by the United States."

In attacking DNC's claim, the Justice Department accused the concessionaire's parent company of employing a "business model whereby it collects trademarks to the names of iconic property owned by the United States. Thus, for example, DNC, which has a concession at the Kennedy Space Center, has a trademark application for the words 'Space Shuttle Atlantis,'" the department stated.

The Justice Department also argued that DNC wrongly was seeking compensation of nearly $15 million for "other assets" in the form of maintenance and improvements it had performed in Yosemite. That work, the government maintained, fell under the concessionaire's "non-compensable maintenance and repair obligations."

The government also argued that "by setting forth an improper and wildly inflated valuation of 'other property,' including tangible property, ... and then ultimately requesting payment for items for which it is not entitled to receive compensation, DNC has breached its duty of good faith and fair dealing with respect" to the concessions contract.

Aramark's subsidiary is scheduled to begin running Yosemite's lodging and dining concessions on March 1. So far, according to the government's filing, DNC has refused to negotiate the value of its trademarks with Aramark.