Orlando Theme Park Sued For Trade Secret Theft and Breach of Contract

On April 27, 2009, ICC Designs, an Orlando based company, sued Universal Orlando, its parent company, and two studios for alleged breach of contract and trade secret theft. The suit stems from a Halloween Horrors Nights attraction at Universal. The attraction features Universal characters “Freddy Krueger,” “Jason,” and “Leather Face.”

ICC had approached New Line in 2005 about developing an attraction featuring the popular characters. Universal responded positively, as there was no attraction that currently featured these New Line characters. ICC and New Line entered into a joint venture. On July 25, 2005, New Line President David Imhoff said, “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?”

However, on November 21, 2006, NBC canceled a conference call between it and ICC where the two were to discuss licensing for Universal Studios. In July 2007, ICC found out through a magazine article that NBC, New Line, and Universal Orlando had formed a new venture to bring these three characters to Universal’s two parks in Orlando and Hollywood.

I’ll keep you posted as the litigation proceeds