Castaway Bay name..is it a trademark or copyright?

Check out this link . The Castaway Bay pool area certainly confused me for a second. It is a new name for the water play area at this hotel. If it is a trademark name for Cedar Fair, doesn't this infringe because of the national recognition of the Cedar Fair name and its parks?

I'm not completely sure, and IANAL, but...is it possible that Ramada may be trying to take advantage of the fact that the old Ramada hotel is now Castaway Bay, in an effort to draw in customers with the linking of Ramada to Cedar Point, to Castaway Bay? Possible, yes. Purposeful use for consumer confusion? More than likely. Infringing? We'll have to wait and see.

Who would want to go there when they could just go pig out and drink beer at the attached "Old Chicago?" :)

I never even knew they had a pool area called Castaway Bay. The hotel has recently been remodeled as have many in the 28th St area and looks pretty nice. I have no reason to stay there since I live here so I couldn't say much more about it.

Nothing like having a place that rewards you for drinking beer.
I'm almost halfway through my first tour.

There's a major difference between a copyright and a trademark. A trademark, by the U.S. Government's definition is

A trademark includes any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination used, or intended to be used, in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods. In short, a trademark is a brand name.

...whereas a copyright is...

Copyright is a form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution and granted by law for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Copyright covers both published and unpublished works, including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies songs, computer software and architecture. (Generally, content.)

A copyright does not cover facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed.

With that being said, Castaway Bay is a trademark. If you look further into Ramada's website, they advertise the waterpark as Ramada Plaza Water Park... or is this a different area of the hotel? My guess is that Ramada either had the area named that prior to Castaway Bay's opening, are unaware of the similar name, or have an agreement with the park.

Besides it wasn't a Ramada, it was a Radisson.

I stayed at CB for New Years and showed them this thread. The manager thought it was interesting and they are going to have it looked into.

Scott Cameron said:
Besides it wasn't a Ramada, it was a Radisson.

Haha, yeah...my bad. Two hotel chains I don't see much of anymore. I guess I get confused easily these days. You could probably tell me Lake Erie is the Atlantic Ocean and I'd believe you...oh, wait, nevermind, I take my mind with me when I go places. ;)

Pigging out at Old Chicago with Matt for the win!

Was that Ramada an old Holiday Inn? looks like it.

Maybe both places (CP & GR Ramada) have licensed the use of the name from the trademark owner. There is a very good likelihood that someone else owned the name first.

It's not hard to look this stuff up. Cedar Fair owns the trademark for "Castaway Bay."

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=76544910

It's a good tradmark, and a good play on words ;)

Leave it up to me to kill what was thought of as original ideas :)

~Rob Willi