Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), commonly "Disney," is a public diversified entertainment and media company founded October 16, 1923 and headquartered at 500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California. For fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 it reported revenue of roughly $94.4 billion; public sources put headcount near 231,000 (Fortune/PitchBook; some data providers list ~194,000) and market capitalization in the $165–185 billion range as of mid-2026.

Operations. Disney operates three reporting segments: Entertainment (film and television studios, Disney+ and Hulu streaming, ABC and other networks, Disney Music Group and publishing), Sports (ESPN networks, ESPN+, ESPN BET), and Experiences (domestic and international theme parks and resorts, cruise lines, Disney Vacation Club, and consumer products/licensing). It also holds majority control of Hulu and a stake in India's JioStar.

Litigation posture. In the tracked data Disney appears only as a defendant — 0 plaintiff cases, 2 defendant cases — the profile of an operating company being targeted, not an asserter. Both tracked entries reflect the same patent suit, filed in the Waco Division of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas (Judge Alan Albright), a venue historically favored by patent plaintiffs.

Notable cases. Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. v. The Walt Disney Company, No. 6:20-cv-00949 (W.D. Tex., filed October 13, 2020), accused Disney's media-streaming services, apps and related products of infringing patents covering playlist creation/management (e.g., U.S. 6,502,194; 6,526,411; 6,721,489; 7,173,177; 7,642,443) and remote control of devices (8,165,867). Plaintiff Cedar Lane is a British Columbia entity formed in 2019 that acquired roughly 40 former Intellectual Ventures patents and has sued dozens of technology and streaming companies; the U.S. government's Korean counterpart materials and Unified Patents both classify it as an NPE, and Unified successfully invalidated one asserted patent at the PTAB. Cedar Lane voluntarily dismissed the Disney case in February 2021, and the court closed it in October 2021. The tracked data records no other Disney appearances; note that Disney is separately an active defendant in other matters outside this dataset (e.g., standard-essential-patent litigation with InterDigital), but those are not reflected in the counts above.