According to Law360 a second patent infringement suit was filed against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts on February 24. The lawsuit accusing Walt Disney Parks and Resorts of stealing patented technology for use in its MagicBand products that monitor park attendance and purchases made by guests.
The sons of the now-deceased inventor of the patent allege in the lawsuit that Disney’s MagicBand portable electronic devices use their father’s patented system of wirelessly connecting devices. They are seeking an injunction and damages in an amount to be determined at trial and nothing less than a reasonable royalty. The brothers inherited the rights to their father’s Communication and Proximity Authorization Systems patent that was issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in December 2002.
The suit claims that Disney’s MagicBands use the patented wireless communication technology used to track guests and to give guests access to services around the Disney theme parks. The claim also mentions that the MagicBands communication with other short- and long-range device readers within the Walt Disney World Resort, to receive predetermined services, like access to park rides. Those services can be activated through authorization codes, which is also described in the patent.
Disney faced its first infringement suit over the MagicBands in April 2015. In that lawsuit filed by InCom Corp. it was alleged that they had developed three patents since 2008 for attendance tracking and that MagicBands use that technology.
They claimed Disney infringed on its patents that use a radio frequency identification, or RFID, to recognize guests and keep track of their attendance. Prior to InCom’s inventions, there was no suitable product using RFID to keep track of people’s whereabouts, it stated InCom’s complaint. Walt Disney and InCom reached a confidential agreement which ended the suit in August.
What are your thoughts on the MagicBands lawsuits?
Source: Law360
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