The Walt Disney Company and Disney Parks are named as defendants in a lawsuit that alleges the Disney Genie and Disney Genie+ services have infringed on a patent held by Agile Journeys LLC.
The patent in question is a 2007 patent titled “Method and Apparatus for Providing Visitors with a Personalized Itinerary and Managed Access to Attractions” from two inventors that used to work for Disney. The patent was filed in 2001. One of the inventors, William Gibbens Redmann, is named on at least twelve Disney patents, and has been previously employed in high-ranking positions at Walt Disney Imagineering.
The lawsuit describes the patent as a personalized, dynamic itinerary generator that, in our opinion, sounds a lot like the Disney Genie service. A prototype of the personalization service described in the Agile Journeys LLC patent shows the rudimentary service loaded onto a Palm Pilot, but showcasing many questions of a similar nature that a guest might be asked when initializing the Disney Genie service.
Here’s a screenshot of the lawsuit, citing a BlogMickey.com article from when the Disney Genie and Disney Genie+ services were first rolling out last year.
The lawsuit goes on to allege that Disney was aware of the original patent and its inventors. The lawsuit also alleges that Disney has previously tried to file multiple patents similar to the one filed by Agile Journeys LLC and that Disney was rejected multiple times.
The lawsuit claims that “Agile Journeys has suffered and is owed monetary damages that are adequate to compensate it for the infringement” and demands trial by jury.
Disney has not responded to the lawsuit yet.
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Sounds like a good time to dump the whole damn thing.