Media & Entertainment Law

New Line, Univesal Orlando sued over themepark attraction.

By Gordon Firemark

TRADE SECRETS THEFT AND BREACH OF CONTRACT LLEGED BY ORLANDO BUSINESS AGAINST NEW LINE CINEMA AND UNIVERSAL ORLANDO

ORLANDO, FLORIDA?ICC Designs, an Orlando-based business that has for over 25 years designed and produced theme park attractions, recently filed suit against New Line Cinema and Universal Orlando for theft of its idea and design for a ?Halloween Horror Nights? attraction, featuring New Line characters ?Freddy,? ?Jason Voorhies? and ?Leather Face.?

The lawsuit alleges that ICC approached New Line Cinema in 2005 to develop and produce a series of theme park horror attractions using New Line?s famous horror characters. New Line management responded enthusiastically to ICC?s proposal as no theme park or horror attraction had ever before featured these characters. New Line?s Executive Vice President David Imhoff was quoted in a July 25, 2005, Orlando Sentinel story announcing the ICC and New Line joint venture: ?This has never been done before in the Halloween business. There?s going to be a lot of people asking, ?Why didn?t we think of this?? ?

It seemed business plans were progressing until just minutes before a November 21, 2006, conference call between ICC and NBC to discuss licensing for Universal Studios, the call was cancelled. In July of 2007, ICC Designs read in industry magazines that Universal Orlando, NBC, and New Line had formed a new partnership to bring three of Hollywood?s scariest characters to Universal?s two resorts, Universal Orlando and Universal Hollywood.
Stay tuned.

Full post as published by Entertainment Law Update on April 27, 2009 (boomark / email).