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Oculus Founder Hit With Lawsuit
An anonymous reader writes: Palmer Luckey, founder of VR headset-maker Oculus, has been sued by a company accusing him of taking their confidential information and passing it off as his own. Total Recall Technologies, based in Hawaii, claims it hired Luckey in 2011 to build a head-mounted display. Part of that employment involved Luckey signing a confidentiality agreement. In August, 2012, Luckey launched a Kickstarter campaign for the Oculus Rift headset, and Facebook bought his company last year for $2 billion. TRT is seeking compensatory and punitive damages (PDF).
Are you feeling Luckey, PUNK?
To let him further develop it to a finished product without having to pay the usual costs, then reap the rewards after it's ready.
Why would they sue him before he got the money? That would be pretty stupid.
If this is true, why didn't he get hit with a law suit earlier?
Kind of Ironic that Zuckerburg got a similar lawsuit after facebook became popular and now FB owns Oculus
Sounds like they're a little butt hurt because their product... well, I've never heard of it.
A confidentiality agreement is NOT a non-compete agreement which I doubt they could really enforce anyway since a lot of states refuse to recognize them.
As long as he didn't steal anything from them or give out their internal secrets nothing will come of this and he may even get them to cover his legal expenses in the end. I'd bet $5 that this lawsuit is more about getting their name heard than anything else.
Isn't there laws that a lawsuit has to happen within a given time frame? Especially in cases like this one where facts have been all over the news for a very long time?
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
He didn't give hinself shock treatment to erase his memory of the time he worked with us and he failed to deny that he existed during the years of 2011 and 2012. Even though he didn't steal our IP (or we would have sued for that), we want to sue anyway because we fumbled the future and he didn't!
I googled the life out of this and could not find them. I did find a company by that name in Panaji, Goa, India, but I do not see how they may be related. I'm puzzled.
Lost in space at an early age. Survived the vacuum. Now rebuilding castle in air.
In Hawaii, the statute of limitations for a lawsuit over a written or oral contract appears to be 6 years. In California, where I'm guessing Luckey resides, it appears to be 4 years for a written contract, and 2 for an oral one. (Source: http://www.nolo.com/legal-ency...)
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Did the 3d power or the custom display tech required for HTC/oculus exist in 2010-2012? I mean head mount displays with len's been around but i dont think any of them worked worth a crap. i dont believe they have a leg to stand on seeing how both oculus/valve had some of the best of the best work on there setups just not one person
Because there might have been other things going on behind the scenes that are yet to come to light? Perhaps this filing is just the latest action in a series, most of which happened in private between the parties? Not everyone launches into a lawsuit without trying other redress first - especially if contract cases are likely to be thrown out if lesser mediations have been skipped in the first place.
Patent trolls are like pimps without the cool clothes and '72 Riviera with fur-lined windows.
They both make their money off other people's work.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Total Recall could, of course, license the tech to Facebook, and probably make a tidy profit while doing so.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I was a backer. Were you? Or do you feel compelling to complain on behalf of other people?
I got the main thing I backed it for - a dev kit.
Facebook buying them means an investment in learning to program for the Rift is probably 1000x more useful than it would have been otherwise.
I understand people are wary of Facebook, and for good reason. But I have seen huge upsides with pretty much no downside since Facebook bought the company.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Not really. I believe there is a clean hands doctrine that says if your inaction has amplified the harm then you might not get relief for that. For example if you live in the downstairs apartment and notice water is leaking from the upstairs apartment but don't do anything to stop it or limit the damage because you'd rather get the insurance money you can get cut short. It's a lot trickier with an IP issue, is it a lump transfer or an ongoing violation but I think it has most the characteristics of the former where you take a half-finished product and hand it to someone else to finish. In that case there's no harm in delaying apart from the statute of limitations.
Let's say I'm in an accident with you, but it seems at first to not be a big deal and I don't sue for damages. However it turns out it won't heal properly and I lose a lot of money and decide to sue anyway. Am I too late? No, those costs aren't caused by the delay, they'd come no matter what and it won't count against me. Of course I'm not in the US, there you find the nearest ambulance chaser and sue for $millions, unless it was a hobo that hurt you.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
If this guy really used Total Recall's confidential IP, which I'm not saying necessarily happened, but it seems like it may be possible, then Facebook's acquisition would be void... and they could sue the person they bought it from for no less than every single cent that they spent buying it out, probably with interest, and punative damages thrown in for good measure.
This company is working within what I understand is the legally permissable 5-year limitation on NDA's in the high technology industry (albeit only just barely), so if OR is really based on misappropriated IP from that company, then Facebook is no more authorized to use the tech without Total Recall's permission than this guy was authorized to sell it.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
You have no clue to what legal happening have occurred before they filed the suit. There are usually months and sometimes years of legal negotiations and arbitrations in some cases long before a lawsuit is filed officially.
OMG Ponies!!! with Glitter!!!! I miss Pink
comment theif. hahah I just posted the same thing.
OMG Ponies!!! with Glitter!!!! I miss Pink
A company which could not get a working product and now wants to cash in on prior and subsequent work by its one time employee
has a strong motive to claim all sorts of exclusivity to which it is not entitled.
maybe they couldn't get the product to work because their engineer quit and took the blueprints with him?
PalmerTech as he exists on the MTBS boards has a demonstrated development cycle on the rift stretching back to 2009.
Arguably the most important developments were made throughout 2010 with the PR1 concept.
This includes documented evidence of all the major design elements that are evident in the rift to date.
Unless he sold them the IP, then they have no leg to stand on.
Nothing like a beat up to hide the facts.
Source: 5 seconds with google.
If this guy really used Total Recall's confidential IP
There is NO "confidential IP" anywhere in this type of display. This exact same technology has been implemented over and over again for decades. Any patents have expired a long time ago. You can write contracts all day long that assert "IP" but they are meaningless unless there is some sort of novelty. Perhaps you can pick up an old copy of "Mondo 2000" or "Wired" and you will see the exact same type of heads up display being used in the 1990s.
Let's say I'm in an accident with you, but it seems at first to not be a big deal and I don't sue for damages. However it turns out it won't heal properly and I lose a lot of money and decide to sue anyway. Am I too late? No
YES, you are too late, there are very strict time limits for timely filing of automobile liability insurance claims. If you don't make claims of injury promptly, you get nothing.
It did it all, just like Oculus.
But 1/10000th the cpu power, and 1/10th the res.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
No it doesn't dumbass... It starts from the violation of contract. Otherwise you have nothing to sue over.
From Wikipedia:
Emphasis added.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
For Oculus to "pick" Facebook to take them over. Mark has history at being good at this (Hellooo Winklevoss twins)
That's the kind of intentionally harmful delay for which the laches defense was designed.
As another poster had already mentioned, what's the point of sue *before* he got the money?
To enjoin him from further use of trade secrets so that you can sell your product without fear of unfair competition from his.
I hope it kneecaps them, serves them right for pulling the rug out from people when they gave the impression it was going to be open source.
There is no thing called IP, it doesn't exist. Never has. Never will.
Then how would you describe the legal effect of 47 USC 230(e)(2)? "Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or expand any law pertaining to intellectual property."
It's like that famous saying, you know, "If you build it, they will sue."