The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered in Burbank, California. Founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt and Roy O. Disney, the company is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: DIS). As of May 2026, Disney employs approximately 233,000 people, reported a trailing 12-month revenue of $97.3 billion, and held a market capitalization of $178.86 billion.
Disney's operations are segmented into Entertainment, Sports, and Experiences. Its Entertainment division encompasses the ABC broadcast network, various cable channels like Disney Channel and FX, movie and television production studios including Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Marvel Studios, and Lucasfilm, and direct-to-consumer streaming services such as Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu. The Sports segment focuses on the ESPN family of networks and streaming services. The Experiences division manages theme parks, resort hotels, cruise lines, and global merchandising and licensing.
The Walt Disney Company's patent litigation posture is that of an operating company defending against intellectual property assertions. The company is listed as a defendant in all two of its tracked cases and has no plaintiff cases. These lawsuits are concentrated in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, a frequent venue for patent disputes.
Both tracked cases, Adeia Media Holdings LLC et al. v. BAMTech, LLC et al. and Adeia Technologies Inc. et al. v. The Walt Disney Company et al., were filed on November 7, 2024. The plaintiff, Adeia, a patent licensing firm, alleges that Disney and its subsidiaries, including Hulu and ESPN, infringe patents related to media streaming and content delivery technology. The asserted patents reportedly cover functionalities such as "chunking," content delivery networks (CDNs), and viewing progress tracking within Disney's streaming services (Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hulu Live). Adeia simultaneously initiated related patent infringement lawsuits against Disney in European jurisdictions.