Legal litigations in the theme park industry

In my previous blogs I’ve spoken about events happening in theme parks throughout central Florida. In this entry, I’d like to talk about legal liabilities that theme parks often face. People often have high expectations of theme parks and they don’t think that just like any other business they have laws that they have to abide by. Just like the film industry needs to seek rights to portray other people’s characters in films, theme parks need to follow those same rules. Often times, theme parks get into legal litigations as to who exactly owns the right to certain characters. A perfect example is Marvel superheroes.

So who owns Marvel? Disney bought Marvel Comics in 2009. So why doesn’t Walt Disney World have an Iron Man themed attraction when there’s one in development for Shanghai? Several years before Disney bought Marvel, Marvel sold the theme park rights to its characters to Universal Studios. It’s similar to how Sony has the rights to make movies using Spiderman and 20^th Century Fox has the movie rights to X-Men. At the moment, the only way for Marvel characters to be in Walt Disney World theme parks is if it can convince Universal to give up those rights. Back in 2012 when the Avengers movie came out, WDW wrapped one of its monorails with Avengers graphics featuring the characters from the film. However, because of the agreement with Universal, the monorails were restricted to the resort monorail track and not go into Epcot. Personally, I think that Disney is doing fine with leaving the Marvel characters at Universal for the time being. Although Universal Studios is Disney’s main competition, Universal still helps the tourism business and draws crowds from all over the world. People that visit Universal will also come and spend money at Disney. The more enticing Universal is, the more people visit Orlando and probably will stop at Disney.

Another legal litigation that theme parks often face is personal injury and property damage. According to the Orlando Sentinel, a review of 477 state and federal lawsuits filed against SeaWorld, Universal, and Disney between 2004 and 2008 found that 218 of those cases involved people who slipped, tripped, or fell. The rides or attractions themselves only accounted for 101 of the cases. Accidents happen the theme parks know this. However, people tend to think that nothing can happen to them on vacation. They act carelessly and then blame the theme parks for their own carelessness.

The last legal litigation that I’d like to talk about is unions in theme parks. Walt Disney World has the largest union group in Florida and employs over 65,000 cast members. Because the union and WDW can’t settle on a new contract, negotiations were extended to the end of June. The contract discusses wages, benefits, retirement and pension plans, rules of termination, and a general code of conduct expected to be followed by the company and the cast members. The company moved to raise starting pay from $8.03 to $10 dollars an hour among other things. I can’t even imagine the amount of work and negotiations involved with a contract that affects over 65,000 people. That’s why theme parks require lawyers who are able to read and speak the language written in business contracts.  

Brigante, R. (2012, March 30). Avengers to assemble on Disney monorail, first Marvel ‘attraction’ for Walt Disney World. InsideTheMagic.net. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://www.insidethemagic.net/2012/03/avengers-to-assemble-on-disney-monorail-first-marvel-attraction-for-walt-disney-world/

Garcia, J. (2014, April 20). Disney union leaders positive about initial wage offer. Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2014-04-20/news/os-cfb-tourism-column-042114-20140417_1_walt-disney-world-copa-airlines-wage-offer

Niles, R. (2013, July 10). Who really owns the theme park rights to the DC and Marvel comic characters?. Theme Park Insider. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201307/3558/

Powers, S. (2009, March 30). Trips, slips dominate theme-park lawsuits. Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-themepark-injury-lawsuits-033009,0,5046537.story