Beginning in 1963, the ski resort in Steamboat Springs, Colorado has been registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to use the slogan “Ski Town, USA.” After Visit Salt Lake and four resorts within it began using the term “Ski City, USA” in an advertising campaign that launched last month, Steamboat retaliated by filing a trademark infringement lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for Colorado last Friday.

The campaign went so far as to use the tagline, “Once you’ve stayed in Ski City, you’ll never stay in a ski town,” an obvious jab at Steamboat’s small-town feel. “Steamboat has one of the strongest brands in the ski industry and people familiar with skiing and snowboarding associate ‘Ski Town, USA’ with the Steamboat ski resort and that is invaluable to us,” Rob Perlman, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Steamboat Ski and Resort Corporation, told The Denver Post. “They are attempting to use that value to jumpstart their campaign. We think it’s confusingly similar to our ‘Ski Town, USA’ trademark and they are attempting to leverage our brand and our brand equity.”

The four resorts named in the complaint are Alta, Brighton, Solitude, and Snowbird. According to The Denver Post, Visit Salt Lake’s chief, Scott Beck told reporters the campaign “is absolutely aimed at luring skiers away from Colorado.”

According to The Salt Lake Tribune, Visit Salt Lake spokesman Shawn Stinson declined comment on Wednesday.

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