Does Cedar Fair own licensing for Pokemon and Despicable Me? All the games have minions as prizes.

Cedar Fair doesn't "own" the rights to any of the characters in the parks. They pay a licensing fee to the owner of the intellectual property (i.e., Peanuts is owned by a company called Iconix Brand Group) to use them in a theme park environment. Licensing agreements have a finite contract life which may (or may not) be renewed. (Hence the reason CF had Nickelodeon characters in the former Paramount Parks, but no longer do...)

As far as merchandise goes (either sold in the stores or given away as prizes) the manufacturer/distributor of the items has paid the IP license holder for the rights to use the license in their product. Cedar Fair has simply bought the merchandise from the distributor. It's the same idea that you can buy Disney character toys at Target, but Target doesn't "own"any Disney character rights. (However, whoever manufactured/distributed the toys has paid Disney for the right to use their characters...)

If you were born in 1998, you're really only 9 years late.

Well I meant the start of the 80's...more like the 70s through the 80s...