What’s an icicle? Patent case could hinge on definition as Utah-based Ice Castles seeks to put freeze on Idaho display

Christian Denis uses a chainsaw to shape ice in the Midway Ice Castles Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Federal judge in Idaho has not yet ruled on what counts as an icicle

AMERICAN FORK — A Utah company that creates towering ice structures for visitors to wander through and photograph wants to chill its Idaho-based competition.

Ice Castles, based in American Fork, is accusing a similar cold-weather attraction of patent infringement.

The federal lawsuit says LaBelle Lake Ice Palace has used the Utah outfit’s patented method for constructing the ice since 2017 and has offered it to the public in Rigby. Much of the case hinges on what counts as an icicle.

The question has been at the center of the lawsuit in court papers and in oral arguments Monday in Pocatello’s U.S. District Court, where a judge did not immediately rule on the definition.

LaBelle, which is pursuing its own patent, says several dictionaries are on its side. It contends its process for creating a frozen palace is unique.

While Ice Castles’ patent refers only to icicles — formed by dripping water — LaBelle says it uses a different process that creates “ice logs” that are molded in tubes.

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“An icicle’s an icicle, and we don’t use icicles,” said Randall Bateman, an attorney for the Idaho business. He said his client makes what look like giant ice pops, then takes a razor blade and cuts off a plastic sleeve.

But the Utah company contends the frozen molds still fits the definition in its patent. It argues an icicle is “an elongated piece of ice that is formed.”

Attorneys for Ice Castles, including at an Idaho law office and with the Utah firm Kirton McConkie, declined comment. In addition to a site in Midway, Ice Castles now operates in Colorado, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Alberta, Canada.

The suit says Ice Castles “has been irreparably damaged to an extent not yet determined.” It is seeking damages to be determined at trial, plus attorney fees.

LaBelle points out that ice structures like igloos have a history dating back thousands of years. Its legal filings include printouts of online definitions of “icicle,” plus copies of dictionary pages.

In 2017, a friend of James Youngstrom, an owner of LaBelle, had suggested LaBelle’s owners create a winter exhibit similar to those in Scandinavia. Youngstrom had heard of the Ice Castles in Midway and wrote to the Utah company asking if it was interested in creating a display in the Rexburg area, his attorneys say.

He was told the company had already planned its locations for the coming year, so Youngstrom, who has experience building log homes, decided to make his own.

A further hearing in the case has not yet been set.

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