Patent suit filed over LV Hilton’s Star Trek ride

Monday, Jan. 10, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.

BLOOMBERG NEWS

Seagram Co.'s theme park operator, Universal City Studios Inc., accused rival Paramount Parks Inc., a unit of Viacom Inc., of infringing a patent with its $70 million Star Trek simulator ride at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Hollywood-based Universal says it is the owner of a U.S. patent awarded in 1993 for a theater with a domed projection screen and a moving vehicle that creates the illusion for patrons that they're part of an action movie.

Universal says Paramount and Hilton Hotels Corp., both based in the Los Angeles area, have wrongly used its invention by operating since 1998 a "Star Trek Experience" thrill ride that features a space shuttle-style mission.

Hilton later spun off its casino division into Park Place Entertainment Corp. of Las Vegas.

Paramount and Hilton "have acted willfully, knowingly and deliberately, with full knowledge of plaintiff's patent rights," Universal says in the suit. The company asks for unspecified damages after a jury trial.

Officials of Paramount wouldn't comment on the suit.