Disney Uses Our Invention

Prepared by Peter Li-Chang Kuo

At the APEC 2000 Brunei, we advocated that “Intellectual Property Rights” (IPR) and emphasized the importance of "Copyrights" for original technological and economic systems, was incorporated into the Shanghai APEC Leaders' Declaration in 2001. This year, during another APEC cycle hosted by China, intellectual property has once again become a central topic.

In the spring of 1993, during the Lunar New Year, we traveled to Los Angeles at the invitation of Ruth Handler, the inventor of Barbie. On February 13, we made a side trip to visit Disneyland in Anaheim. While waiting in line for "Space Mountain," our children needed to use the restroom. After leaving the line, we were forced to start over, and ultimately could only ride the carousel—resulting in a very poor user experience.

Fig 1: Riding the carousel at Disneyland

I then took the "Color Pamphlet" I had prepared for Mrs. Handler — similar to “Fig 2,” containing details of the "TES invention"—and approached a duty manager at Disneyland. I proposed a potential collaboration, though he responded that the matter would need to be reported to higher management.

Fig 2: “Color Pamphlets” distributed over 50,000 copies

Later, at the APEC 1997 Vancouver, representatives from various economies encouraged my wife, Linda Din, to apply for patents. Her inventions were subsequently recognized by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the most rigorous patent authority in the world. These included:

1) “US6304796B1” (VAM),

2) “US20030197061” (Shopping System),

3) “US20030107468” (ESD).

These patented technologies were later infringed and utilized by “Disney Parks,” generating enormous profits estimated at up to USD 137 billion.

Who Is Linda Din?

On February 21, 1980, I returned from the United States and married a girl I had never met before — Linda Din. Before her age of 22, she had already demonstrated exceptional business acumen. For example, she successfully secured "a tax refund of NTD 5 million" — enough at the time to purchase more than three hectares of land.

With nothing more than a second-hand typewriter, she began selling electronic components globally.

Fig 3: Second-hand Typewriter

Selling to the U.S., Europe, and Japan was not unusual — but she went further, reaching companies such as "Profilo Telra" in Turkey and "Ahuja Radio" in India, even forming a close friendship with the Indian ambassador. Before the age of 30, she was financially capable of lending money to banks and helping businesses avoid default crises.

Yet her greatest concern was Taiwan’s industrial transformation, which led her to propose the “Rich Taiwan Plan.”

Fig 4: Linda Din’s Rich Taiwan Plan

Through spiritual insight and deep meditation, she invented a new technology-driven economic system combining “Electronics + Commerce,” named "TES" (Total eStore System). After surveying global developments, she defined the pre-TES era as the “Contact-based Era”, and envisioned leading Taiwan into a new “Contactless Era.” Her goal was to help Taiwan transcend the limitations of an "Island Economy" and become a central force in the emerging oceanic century, shaping the future mainstream techno-economic society.

After three years of research and exploration, in December 1989, both the "Economic Daily News" and the "Commercial Times" reported on our development of the "RF Transmitter (Converter)."

Fig 5: 1989 RF Transmitter News Coverage

To realize this original invention, we invested unimaginable effort to create a working prototype from nothing:

Fig 6: Contactless TranSmart Chip Card and RF Transmitter

During development, we studied extensive materials, including Albert Einstein’s Nobel Prize-winning concept "E = hν" (the photoelectric effect). By identifying gaps in its application, we advanced the concept and translated our experimental results into a structural design of the “RF Transmitter” — this diagram was created to “open a new economic pathway for the world” —serving as a foundational framework that infringers cannot be bypassed, only built upon. .

Fig 7: RF Transmitter Architecture Diagram

The R&D investment in 1989 alone was enough to purchase an entire Art Street.

Linda Din, on March 29, 1997, assisted the Dalai Lama during the consecration ceremony at Gongga Temple. While driving back to Taichung afterward, she discussed her invention with the temple’s chairman, Chang Li-Tang. Mr. Chang introduced products from Bae Shian Pharmaceutical Company for circulation, while Director Li Chang-Yi of the SME Administration arranged for a proposal to be submitted to the Ministry of Economic Affairs(MOEA) —hoping that the government would also participate in the “Rich Taiwan Plan.”

Linda Din named the TES application plan the “Stored-Value Card Automated Circulation System”—abbreviated as “eBAS” (Electronic Business Automated System). Anticipating that, like the later flowchart included in her book "The Daughter of a Defense Employee" (Linda Din, 2001:190), less perceptive reviewers might fail to understand it, she deliberately rendered it as two “Posters” to enhance its visual clarity and impact.

Fig 8: Two Supporting “eBAS” Posters

The MOEA appointed two reviewers. One of them, Wu Chung-Ji, distorted Linda Din’s vision of “transforming traditional industries through technology and making high-tech industries intelligent” into “hollowing out traditional industries and turning high-tech industries into bubbles,” reflecting the difficulties Taiwan faced in industrial transformation at the time.

The other reviewer, Lee Chi-Chu, after hearing Linda Din’s explanation of the functions and applications of the “Contactless TranSmart Chip Card,” gave a sly smile and said, “Ha! So this is just a scheme to absorb funds!” —and immediately rejected the proposal. Ironically, Lee later rose to prominence by leveraging our invention and continues to rely on it to make for living till this day.

Fig 9: Application Scope of the Contactless TranSmart Chip

Linda Din Did Not Retreat—She Chose a Bigger Stage

Linda Din did not retreat in the face of setbacks. Instead, she set her sights on a larger stage— "APEC" (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation)—the international platform most valued by Lee Teng-Hui — When reporting to President Lee later, he responded, "Through the financial and technological revolution of TES, Taiwan can truly become prosperous."

Consequently, Linda brought her invention and "color pamphlets" to Vancouver, where representatives from APEC economies were astonished by what they saw and strongly encouraged her to apply for "U.S. invention patents."

Fig 10: Reporting to President Lee about TES

As for me, I had already been called the “Father of Precision Industry in Taiwan” by Chiang Ching-Kuo in 1974 at the age of 21, and later named a “Gadget Master” by Ruth Handler—Barbie's inventor. My creations spread across the world — including components as fundamental as the connectors and switches in the smartphones people use today.

Yet I deliberately chose “not to file patents,” because I believed in continuously replacing my own innovations — allowing others to build upon my yesterday’s products and fostering broad-based prosperity through entrepreneurship.

However, Linda insisted that her “Rich Taiwan Plan” was meant to help humanity—achieving mission goals such as “jobs for everyone and bread for securing every family.” In simple terms, she aimed to save world.

She sought help from numerous experts, but none could draft a "patent application" for her. Her invention was not a minor mechanical improvement — it was a "system," built upon more than a decade of accumulated research. Despite presenting extensive materials, no one could translate her vision into a formal patent application.

I advised her based on my own experience in building precision industry from nothing: “Focus on generating revenue first.”

But she remained convinced by the reasoning of her Canadian friend, Lois Stevenson, who warned: “If your goal is to solve unemployment, but someone else patents your invention first, it will become an obstacle to social responsibility investment.”

In the end, I broke my own lifelong principle and helped her complete the world’s "First System-based Patent Application," successfully securing U.S. invention patents.

“Fig 7”—the RF Transmitter Architecture — became the first figure of that U.S. patent, a diagram was created to open a new tech-economic path for the world — establishing a foundational system that infringers cannot bypass, but must follow and build upon.

While Disney Parks later transformed the contactless TranSmart chip card into a wearable wristband, its physical properties and "electromagnetic logic" directly mirrored Linda Din’s 1986 invention.

According to expert analysis, Disney Parks utilized our “RF Transmitter” technology — publicly reported and physically evidenced in December 1989 — to develop its wristband (MagicBand) system. This innovation significantly enhanced user experience, revenue generation, and access control.

From both physical structure and electromagnetic logic, the system demonstrates "100% Substantial Similarity.”

Estimated damages for infringement reach USD 20.5 billion (excluding additional criminal liabilities). A team of experts has advised us to hold an IP auction in the United States, inviting companies such as: “HBO, Netflix, Universal Pictures and etc.” with a starting bid of USD 100 million, packaging the technology for direct market auction.

An Invention Called “Compassion”

There is a kind of invention born not from profit — but from “Compassion” (Universal Concern).

Linda Din could not bear to see taxi drivers robbed, nor to witness failed industrial transformation and widespread unemployment. Through deep spiritual practice, she received inspiration in 1986 and personally created the "TES Conceptual Diagram."

Fig 11: TES Conceptual Diagram

When I later analyzed this diagram and translated it into a system architecture chart, I was genuinely astonished.

Fig 12: TES System Architecture Chart

At its core was the emergence of a “virtual–physical integrated distribution network.”

1)The physical (substantial) channel—including "VAM & eStore" — these key nodes create a seamless global pathway from production (origin) to market, generating massive employment opportunities.

2)The virtual channel, powered by the "TSCM" (TranSmart Supply Chain Management) software system, has the potential to scale economic output to "36% of global GDP" —TSCM was included in the "1999-2000 SBIR Results Compilation" becoming an important national intellectual asset.

Fig 13: "1999-2000 SBIR Results Compilation"

This vision was validated during the global lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic. TES enabled approximately "1.5 billion people" to earn income from home, while the cashless system — formed by the contactless TranSmart chip and the RF Transmitter first reported in 1989 — achieved an annual transaction volume of "USD 36 trillion."

In doing so, it fulfilled its ultimate mission: universal concern for humanity.

Linda Din declared her "IP Sovereignty"

Linda Din, based on her invention of "TES," proposed to attain the passage of the e-commerce legislation while serving as a speaker at APEC 1998 — formally declaring her original “Intellectual Property (IP) Sovereignty” to the international community. She was consequently hailed by representatives of various economies as the “Mother of E-Commerce,” helping usher in the era of the digital economy.

Fig 14: Linda Din attained E-Commerce Bill at APEC 1998

After the conference, when I attended a meeting in Lübeck, Germany, even the German Minister of Economics, Günter Rexrodt, introduced me to everyone as: “Peter Kuo, the husband of 'the Mother of E-Commerce,' Linda Din.”

In the Singaporean film "Money No Enough," there is a memorable scene: a son dreams of his deceased mother. She asks him to burn for her "a bra embroidered with Mickey Mouse." The son refuses, saying, “Embroidering Mickey Mouse on a bra—that’s infringement. It’s illegal!”

Linda Din, hailed as the “Mother of E-Commerce,” invented TES out of "Compassion" — unable to bear to see the suffering of the disadvantaged. As a two-time APEC speaker, she helped usher in a new era of techno-economic development, contributing a “Total Economic Solution” (TES) to address structural social problems.

In contrast, Walt Disney famously drew a mouse he saw on a train and turned it into profit. The difference in meaning could not be more profound.

For the social significance and real-world impact embodied in Linda Din’s “TES Conceptual Framework” far surpass that of Mickey Mouse.

The island cartel group, in addition to carrying out a series of coordinated persecutions, further through Wang Chien-Shien, President of the Control Yuan, to impose a “Confidential Report until August 16, 2017,” warning the “Mother of E-Commerce” not to mention her invention again, under threat of a seven-year prison sentence — effectively confining her to the island and subjecting her to relentless exploitation until nothing was left.

Fig 15: Confidential Report until August 16, 2017

After the documents were declassified, I approached one of the world’s largest law firms. Astonishingly, it was not until 2024, at the W Taipei, that they finally told me: “We don’t dare mess with The Walt Disney Company.” The situation was highly unusual.

Why is it that The Walt Disney Company — which would label even “a bra embroidered with Mickey Mouse as an infringer,” with legal systems around the world effectively serving its interests — dares to so brazenly copy our invention?

This raises the issue of “Efficient Infringement”— the infringers take first, profit enormously, and rely on their overwhelming power to prevail. As long as the original creators are smeared, marginalized, or treated as targets, the originators are left with no effective recourse.

The question is: can today’s international intellectual property framework—such as "WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, and the TRIPS Agreement" — really be merely symbolic? Especially when “APEC” (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), in the Year of the Fire Horse, is actively addressing the digital economy, anti-corruption, and — most critically — intellectual property (IP).

Peter Li-Chang Kuo, the author created Taiwan's Precision Industry in his early years. Peter was a representative of the APEC CEO Summit and an expert in the third sector. He advocated "anti-corruption (AC)/cashless/e-commerce (E-Com)/ICT/IPR/IIA-TES / Micro-Business (MB)…and etc." to win the international bills and regulations.