Tree Trademark Claim Stirs Fury : Monuments: Golf resort says it owns famous, century-old lone cypress near Carmel, and bars commercial photographers.

Photographers say a famous lone cypress tree on the coast near Carmel is a natural monument and that anyone can take a picture of it for any reason.

But the company that owns its rocky perch warns commercial photographers away, insisting the tree--not just the logo it inspired--is a trademark.

“The Pebble Beach Co. does not mind anyone photographing the tree for private purposes. What it does object to is the commercial exploitation of its own property by others without its consent,” said Kerry Smith, a San Francisco lawyer for the resort company.

The tree, which stands alone on a wind-swept finger of rock that juts into the Pacific, is a popular tourist stop on the 17-mile drive just north of Carmel. It is about 85 miles south of San Francisco.

Although the tree has been recorded on film for a century, including by renowned photographers Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, the scenic golf resort recently told two professional photographers not to use pictures of the tree without its consent.

The action and trademark claim have evoked bewilderment, amusement, skepticism and outrage.

“This just knocked me over. . . . I thought the tree was made by God,” said Los Angeles photographer Craig Aurness, who got a warning letter from the company after his picture of the tree was used in an MCI brochure last fall.

Pebble Beach Co. also denied photographer Ed Young of Carmel permission to take pictures of the cypress if he planned to use them for commercial purposes.

“I’m sure Ansel Adams and Edward Weston didn’t have to get anything in writing,” Young said in a letter of protest to the company.

The Pebble Beach Co. warns visitors in a brochure that unauthorized commercial photography is not allowed. And it has registered several depictions of the tree as a trademark and uses them on company letterheads, golf clubs, balls, caps and other items at the resort, Smith said.

The trademark includes the tree itself as well as abstract and realistic depictions of it, he said.

“The lone cypress itself has been the symbol and trademark of the Pebble Beach Co. and its predecessors since 1916,” he said.

But photographers, people who sell their work and experts in “intellectual property” law disagree with the trademark claim or say the issue is unclear.

“What is trademarkable is your logo or illustration,” said Nancy Wolff, partner in the New York law firm of Cavallo and Wolff, which represents Aurness. “That doesn’t mean the tree is trademarkable. . . . They’re trying to get a monopoly over a natural object because they have this drawing.”

Critics of the Pebble Beach Co. also argue that the cypress is in the public domain, pointing out that people were taking pictures of it long before the area became a resort.

“The tree is, in my opinion, a world-renowned symbol,” said Allison Worthern, graphics manager of a Carmel gallery. “It’s part of us here. . . . We already put a price on so many things in this world . . . that belong to God and nature.”