Canopy Patent Holder Launches New Offensive
By Tim Rogers
trogers@ticotimes.net

PASSIONATE ABOUT THE PATENT: Lawyer Enrique Rojas (foreground) and Darren Hreniuk. TT/ Susan Hollis

Darren Hreniuk, owner of Monteverde's Original Canopy Tour and the controversial patent holder for all canopy tours in Costa Rica, yesterday announced a new offensive against what he and his lawyers call the 40-plus "pirate" zipline operations.

Enrique Rojas, Hreniuk's lawyer, adamantly stressed yesterday that his client has the sole patent to all treetop tours and warned that next week he will file criminal charges against all other zipline operators and seek damages.

"These operators are putting people's lives at risk," Rojas charged.

Hreniuk, a Canadian transplant who claims to have invented the concept of using a gravity propelled pulley system to traverse treetop cables, was granted intellectual property rights in 1998 -- a title that has been scoffed at and appealed by other adventure tour operators, who claim the canopy concept is older than Hreniuk himself.

The canopy entrepreneur attempted to enforce his claim last April and May, when he traveled to several tourist towns with police and registry officials and issued canopy operators with cease-and-desist orders from the Registry. Most of the zipline operators reopened shortly after Hreniuk and the enforcers left (TT, May 2, 9, 16).

Affected canopy operators formed a legal front against Hreniuk and filed a flurry of appeals with the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV), claiming the Registry notification was illegal. The Sala IV, however, ruled in favor of Hreniuk and rejected the appeals July 16.

Backed by the Registry and the Sala, Hreniuk and his lawyers claim all but six canopy tours affiliated with The Original Canopy Tour are facing the end game.

The 50-plus zipline tours in Costa Rica have become the most popular day tours among tourists. While no official numbers exist, it is estimated that 25% of the million plus tourists who visit Costa Rica each year go on a canopy tour.