Many Disney fans have mixed feelings toward the new Genie and Genie+ systems. Most of those feelings are negative, in case you were wondering. The Orlando Business Journal wrote an article regarding the latest lawsuit to hit the Walt Disney Company that involves the new pay-to-ride experience.
According to the Business Journal article, the suit alleges patent infringement of one of the Agile Journeys’ patents. Agile Journeys LLC is a California-based company, and they filed a lawsuit on December 2nd with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida Fort Myers Division.
Agile Journeys alleges Disney infringes on Agile Journeys’ patent published in 2002, dubbed “Method and Apparatus for Providing Visitors with a Personalized Itinerary and Managed Access to Attractions,” which describes a personalized itinerary system for attraction visitors. The lawsuit alleges Agile Journeys has been damaged by Disney.
“Disney has infringed and continues to infringe (literally and/or under the doctrine of equivalents), directly, indirectly, and/or through subsidiaries, agents, representatives or intermediaries, one or more claims of the [patent] by making, using, testing, supplying, causing to be supplied, selling and/or offering for sale in the United States the Disney Genie system, including the Disney Genie App,” alleges the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also alleges that Disney was aware of Agile Journey’s technology dating back to 2002. According to the article, Agile’s patent co-inventor William Gibbens Redmann was in contact with Disney representatives regarding the technology. The suit contains alleged emails between Redmann and Disney representatives discussing the systems.
The lawsuit also alleges that Disney attempted to patent its own system multiple times, which the lawsuit alleges included applications that were “rejected” or where Agile’s patent was cited when being reviewed.
As of December 5th, Agile Journeys LLC is represented by a Fort Myers-based Yeslow & Koeppel PA attorney named Steven Gautier Koeppel. In the document, it shows that Disney did not have an attorney listed at this time.
Currently, neither side has made any comments on the matter.
Now for the real question, how do you think this will affect Disney Genie+? Do you think this might be the end for the system, or could this help improve it? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Source: The Orlando Business Journal
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