A federal judge dismisses the 2-year-old intellectual-property lawsuit.
Walt Disney World did not steal the idea for Epcot, an Orlando federal judge has ruled in a 2-year-old case.
In dismissing the case late Friday, U.S. District Judge Patricia C. Fawsett said that drawings of a proposed park called Miniature Worlds developed by Hawaiian artist Mark E. Waters were not "strikingly similar" to plans developed by the Imagineers who designed Epcot decades ago.
The intellectual-property suit, filed in 2002, alleged that an associate of Waters', Robert M. Jaffray, shared the drawings in the 1960s with Disney executives, who rejected them. The suit accused the company of then using the drawings to develop a similar futuristic and international theme park decades later.
In her order, Fawsett said that while there were letters showing Jaffray communicated with Disney executives in 1963, there was no proof he ever shared the paintings with the company.
And, she wrote, the Miniature Worlds drawings were not similar enough to the designs for Epcot to take the case to a jury.
"We have always believed that this case had no merit," Disney spokesman Bill Warren said.
Waters died in 1997, Jaffray in 2000. The suit was filed by Orrin Monroe Corwin, a relative of Waters', after a judge dismissed an earlier one filed by Jaffray's family because the statue of limitations had expired. Court records show the two families had confidentially agreed to share in any judgment, 25 percent to Waters' estate, 75 percent to Jaffray's.
Two years ago, Corwin's attorney John Stemberger said the court award could top $240 million, the amount Disney paid after a jury found it stole the idea for the Wide World of Sports complex.
He said Monday that his legal team would meet today to consider an appeal. He said he remained convinced that Disney stole the idea for Epcot from his clients, and was disappointed that the case was not headed for a trial.
"It's unfortunate we will not have the opportunity to show the images to a jury, because we think the paintings speak for themselves," he said.
Fawsett, in her 43-page order dismissing the case before it got to a jury, found that the two renderings were not "strikingly similar," which she said was the standard of proof in the case.
For example, she wrote, the Miniature Worlds drawings featured a large globe with a map of the world at the front of the park; Epcot has a large silver globe -- with no world map -- near the front of the park.
Miniature Worlds artwork also shows a train running around the edge of the entire park; Disney's monorail cuts through only part of Epcot.
"While the Epcot rendering and Miniature Worlds painting contain similar ideas, both works express these ideas dissimilarly," Fawsett wrote.
The suit alleged that Jaffray shared the drawings with Disney executives during meetings in the early 1960s, though Fawsett said she saw no concrete proof that occurred.
Walt Disney originally envisioned Epcot -- the experimental prototype community of tomorrow -- as a futuristic utopian city, with actual residents.
After his death in 1966, his ideas gave way to a more traditional theme park, one split into international and futuristic sections. Epcot opened in 1982.
In a 2000 letter to the Jaffray family, Marty Sklar, the current creative head of Walt Disney Imagineering who spearheaded Epcot's design, denied seeing the Miniature Worlds drawings.
He wrote that the international section for a theme park was discussed as early as 1953. And Epcot's hallmark, the giant sphere, harked back to World's Fairs in New York, he wrote.
At some point during the design of Epcot, Sklar scribbled the phrase "Miniature World, Micro Miniature Worlds" on a piece of paper, court records show.
When asked why he wrote "Miniature World," Sklar said he did not know what he was thinking at the time and had doodled the words while "falling asleep in a meeting," according to records.
Disney is a frequent target of lawsuits alleging intellectual-property theft, some of which are successful, some of which are not.
In 2000, jurors concluded that Disney had stolen the idea for its Wide World of Sports complex and ordered the company to pay $240 million to two businessmen who had pitched a similar idea to the company years before.
Last month, a Tennessee man filed a lawsuit accusing Disney of stealing the idea for its popular FastPass system, which allows tourists to skip long lines for rides.
Walt Disney World did not steal the idea for Epcot, an Orlando federal judge has ruled in a 2-year-old case.
In dismissing the case late Friday, U.S. District Judge Patricia C. Fawsett said that drawings of a proposed park called Miniature Worlds developed by Hawaiian artist Mark E. Waters were not "strikingly similar" to plans developed by the Imagineers who designed Epcot decades ago.
The intellectual-property suit, filed in 2002, alleged that an associate of Waters', Robert M. Jaffray, shared the drawings in the 1960s with Disney executives, who rejected them. The suit accused the company of then using the drawings to develop a similar futuristic and international theme park decades later.
In her order, Fawsett said that while there were letters showing Jaffray communicated with Disney executives in 1963, there was no proof he ever shared the paintings with the company.
And, she wrote, the Miniature Worlds drawings were not similar enough to the designs for Epcot to take the case to a jury.
"We have always believed that this case had no merit," Disney spokesman Bill Warren said.
Waters died in 1997, Jaffray in 2000. The suit was filed by Orrin Monroe Corwin, a relative of Waters', after a judge dismissed an earlier one filed by Jaffray's family because the statue of limitations had expired. Court records show the two families had confidentially agreed to share in any judgment, 25 percent to Waters' estate, 75 percent to Jaffray's.
Two years ago, Corwin's attorney John Stemberger said the court award could top $240 million, the amount Disney paid after a jury found it stole the idea for the Wide World of Sports complex.
He said Monday that his legal team would meet today to consider an appeal. He said he remained convinced that Disney stole the idea for Epcot from his clients, and was disappointed that the case was not headed for a trial.
"It's unfortunate we will not have the opportunity to show the images to a jury, because we think the paintings speak for themselves," he said.
Fawsett, in her 43-page order dismissing the case before it got to a jury, found that the two renderings were not "strikingly similar," which she said was the standard of proof in the case.
For example, she wrote, the Miniature Worlds drawings featured a large globe with a map of the world at the front of the park; Epcot has a large silver globe -- with no world map -- near the front of the park.
Miniature Worlds artwork also shows a train running around the edge of the entire park; Disney's monorail cuts through only part of Epcot.
"While the Epcot rendering and Miniature Worlds painting contain similar ideas, both works express these ideas dissimilarly," Fawsett wrote.
The suit alleged that Jaffray shared the drawings with Disney executives during meetings in the early 1960s, though Fawsett said she saw no concrete proof that occurred.
Walt Disney originally envisioned Epcot -- the experimental prototype community of tomorrow -- as a futuristic utopian city, with actual residents.
After his death in 1966, his ideas gave way to a more traditional theme park, one split into international and futuristic sections. Epcot opened in 1982.
In a 2000 letter to the Jaffray family, Marty Sklar, the current creative head of Walt Disney Imagineering who spearheaded Epcot's design, denied seeing the Miniature Worlds drawings.
He wrote that the international section for a theme park was discussed as early as 1953. And Epcot's hallmark, the giant sphere, harked back to World's Fairs in New York, he wrote.
At some point during the design of Epcot, Sklar scribbled the phrase "Miniature World, Micro Miniature Worlds" on a piece of paper, court records show.
When asked why he wrote "Miniature World," Sklar said he did not know what he was thinking at the time and had doodled the words while "falling asleep in a meeting," according to records.
Disney is a frequent target of lawsuits alleging intellectual-property theft, some of which are successful, some of which are not.
In 2000, jurors concluded that Disney had stolen the idea for its Wide World of Sports complex and ordered the company to pay $240 million to two businessmen who had pitched a similar idea to the company years before.
Last month, a Tennessee man filed a lawsuit accusing Disney of stealing the idea for its popular FastPass system, which allows tourists to skip long lines for rides.
I just have seen enough to know this guy is a fake.