Gabrielle Russon
An Austrian ride manufacturer suing Universal over the Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon ride says it inspected the attraction for the first time last month and found Universal was infringing on “at least one claim” in each of its patents, according to new court documents.
Dynamic Motion Group filed a lawsuit last year in Orange Circuit Court that was re-filed this week in U.S. District Court’s Orlando division.
“The damage to Dynamic Motion is irreparable by monetary damages alone,” said Dynamic, the parent company of DyMoRides, in the new lawsuit.
DyMoRides was originally hired as the ride manufacturer for Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon attraction which opened in 2017 at Universal Studios Florida. The ride manufacturer describes its ride technology “as a new generation of simulator motion systems for the amusement ride and training markets.”
But the DyMoRides and Universal had a falling out.
Dynamic previously argued in court documents that Universal wanted to make changes later in the building process and Universal didn’t have enough engineers on staff to build the ride. “Furthermore, there was a profound lack of communication between Universal engineers and Universal creative team,” the earlier circuit court lawsuit said.
Ultimately, Universal ended up replacing DyMoRides with another company to finish the project.
But Dynamic claimed Universal still owed more than $5 million in unpaid bills plus interest, according to the circuit court lawsuit. Universal was operating the ride based on DyMoRides’ technology. If the company wasn’t fully paid, then Universal wasn’t licensed to use DyMoRides’ patents for the technology, Dynamic said in the federal lawsuit.
Dynamic filed the first lawsuit in Orange Circuit Court nearly a year ago.
“DyMoRides alleged that Universal owed DyMoRides for past due invoices and for the use of DyMoRides’ preexisting technology which included software, know-how, drawings, and other intellectual property belonging to DyMoRides,” court documents said.
During the discovery process for their legal fight, DyMoRides got access behind the scenes at Universal to get film and photographs of the ride and to look at the ride’s software.
“The Attraction, and Universal’s design and construction of the Attraction, and Universal’s operation of the Attraction, infringes upon the DyMoRides Patents,” Dynamic said in the federal lawsuit.
The Jimmy Fallon ride is a 3D motion-simulator attraction based on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” that takes passengers on a ride through New York City and into space.
Universal did not respond immediately for comment Wednesday.
