Originally Posted by
James Luckard
As expected, most of the hotels decided to keep using their names, presumably without permission.
Their Russian operators have set up new websites for them, based in Russia, using the copyrighted Sheraton and Marriott logos. Many of the web addresses hide the brand names, but the actual pages are all covered in them
Awesome post. Thanks for posting the list.
Technically, they might be perfectly legal to continue to use the name. In any country, federal laws trumps private contract law. And the laws in one country cannot be imposed in another.
If the Russian government is allowing these hotels to continue using their old names, then these hotels are 100% legal. They do not need to get permission from Marriott. In fact, Russia could interpret that Marriott was in breach of any franchising agreement.