Editorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe nonprofit Sesame Workshop, known for the children’s TV show “Sesame Street,” is suing SeaWorld’s parent company, United Parks & Resorts, accusing the theme \u200cpark operator of withholding royalties and undermining the iconic brand.”This action arises out of SeaWorld\u2019s refusal to honor its contractual obligations as the licensee of Sesame Workshop\u2019s iconic and valuable Sesame Street brand,” the lawsuit reads. For more than 45 years, “SeaWorld has been Sesame Workshop\u2019s exclusive U.S. theme park licensee. Under licensing agreements in 1983 and 2006, the parties collaborated to open several Sesame Street-themed parks and attractions … “That includes the first-ever standalone Sesame Street theme park, Sesame Place Langhorne Park, and Sesame Land attractions at Busch Gardens and other SeaWorld-owned parks. The lawsuit claims the parties entered into their most recent licensing agreement in 2017, but a few years later, “SeaWorld stopped fulfilling its obligations under the Agreement, and ignored the Agreement in a manifestly high-handed way.”Further claims include: In 2022, SeaWorld failed to pay millions of dollars in royalties due to Sesame Workshop for Sesame Place Langhorne Park. SeaWorld locked Sesame Workshop\u2019s team out of the parties\u2019 shared social media approvals document and project tracker, and sent out dozens of marketing materials using Sesame Workshop\u2019s IP without its approvalOn Sep. 15, 2025, SeaWorld abruptly announced that it would be closingSesame Place San Diego less than a week later on Sept. 21, 2025, and transitioning the park to a seasonal schedule. This came as a complete surprise to Sesame Workshop.SeaWorld is tarnishing the reputation of Sesame Workshop\u2019s brand through abruptly closing a beloved standalone park and Sesame Street-themed attraction, disappointing children and families who already made plans to visit, and sending unapproved marketing materials using Sesame Workshop\u2019s name Sesame Workshop says it tried to negotiate a resolution over the unpaid royalties but was ultimately forced to arbitrate the claim.In September 2024, a court ordered SeaWorld to pay the arbitration award in full, plus interest.”Still, SeaWorld dragged its feet in finally making payment until Sesame Workshop was forced to file a motion for the clerk to issue writs of garnishment in September 2025,” the lawsuit says. ” Since losing the arbitration\u2014which, again, merely asked SeaWorld to pay Sesame Workshop royalties owed under the Agreement\u2014SeaWorld has engaged in a series of willful, unilateral retaliatory breaches designed to undermine the parties\u2019 relationship and harm Sesame Workshop.”What SeaWorld says SeaWorld claims Sesame Workshop failed to invest in its Sesame Street brand or to maintain Sesame Street as a core focus of its organization, according to the lawsuit. In a statement to WESH 2, SeaWorld said: “We are aware of the lawsuit filed by Sesame Workshop and look forward to setting the record straight in court.”Sesame Workshop is seeking to terminate agreements between the two organizations, a judgment against SeaWorld and an award of damages.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The nonprofit Sesame Workshop, known for the children’s TV show “Sesame Street,” is suing SeaWorld’s parent company, United Parks & Resorts, accusing the theme \u200cpark operator of withholding royalties and undermining the iconic brand.<\/p>\n
“This action arises out of SeaWorld\u2019s refusal to honor its contractual obligations as the licensee of Sesame Workshop\u2019s iconic and valuable Sesame Street brand,” the lawsuit reads. <\/p>\n
For more than 45 years, “SeaWorld has been Sesame Workshop\u2019s exclusive U.S. theme park licensee. Under licensing agreements in 1983 and 2006, the parties collaborated to open several Sesame Street-themed parks and attractions … “<\/p>\n
That includes the first-ever standalone Sesame Street theme park, Sesame Place Langhorne Park, and Sesame Land attractions at Busch Gardens and other SeaWorld-owned parks. <\/p>\n
The lawsuit claims the parties entered into their most recent licensing agreement in 2017, but a few years later, “SeaWorld stopped fulfilling its obligations under the Agreement, and ignored the Agreement in a manifestly high-handed way.”<\/p>\n
Further claims include: <\/p>\n
In 2022, SeaWorld failed to pay millions of dollars in royalties due to Sesame Workshop for Sesame Place Langhorne Park. SeaWorld locked Sesame Workshop\u2019s team out of the parties\u2019 shared social media approvals document and project tracker, and sent out dozens of marketing materials using Sesame Workshop\u2019s IP without its approvalOn Sep. 15, 2025, SeaWorld abruptly announced that it would be closing
Sesame Place San Diego less than a week later on Sept. 21, 2025, and transitioning the park to a seasonal schedule. This came as a complete surprise to Sesame Workshop.SeaWorld is tarnishing the reputation of Sesame Workshop\u2019s brand through abruptly closing a beloved standalone park and Sesame Street-themed attraction, disappointing children and families who already made plans to visit, and sending unapproved marketing materials using Sesame Workshop\u2019s name <\/p>\n
Sesame Workshop says it tried to negotiate a resolution over the unpaid royalties but was ultimately forced to arbitrate the claim.<\/p>\n
In September 2024, a court ordered SeaWorld to pay the arbitration award in full, plus interest.<\/p>\n
“Still, SeaWorld dragged its feet in finally making payment until Sesame Workshop was forced to file a motion for the clerk to issue writs of garnishment in September 2025,” the lawsuit says. ” Since losing the arbitration\u2014which, again, merely asked SeaWorld to pay Sesame Workshop royalties owed under the Agreement\u2014SeaWorld has engaged in a series of willful, unilateral retaliatory breaches designed to undermine the parties\u2019 relationship and harm Sesame Workshop.”<\/p>\n
What SeaWorld says <\/p>\n
SeaWorld claims Sesame Workshop failed to invest in its Sesame Street brand or to maintain Sesame Street as a core focus of its organization, according to the lawsuit. <\/p>\n
In a statement to WESH 2, SeaWorld said: <\/p>\n
“We are aware of the lawsuit filed by Sesame Workshop and look forward to setting the record straight in court.”<\/p>\n
Sesame Workshop is seeking to terminate agreements between the two organizations, a judgment against SeaWorld and an award of damages. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEAWORLD, ORLANDO\u2019S PARENT COMPANY, IS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE. SESAME WORKSHOP SUED UNITED PARKS AND RESORTS, CLAIMING THEY VIOLATED…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[9688,89081,2353,25247,833,89078,1536,139,141,140,2895,89077,2043,13239,89079,89080,12710,89076],"class_list":["post-190790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-agreement","tag-arbitration-award","tag-child","tag-dollar","tag-lawsuit","tag-marketing-material","tag-organization","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-party","tag-royalty","tag-seaworld","tag-september","tag-sesame-land-attraction","tag-sesame-place-langhorne-park","tag-sesame-street","tag-sesame-workshop-million"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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