Oculus Founder Sued for Breach of Contract
Palmer Luckey, the founder of FaceBook's Oculus VR division, will face a civil lawsuit brought by Total Recall Technologies.
However, Luckey was able to have additional claims against him dropped -- like fraud.
Facebook Acquires Oculus
Oculus was acquired by Facebook back in 2014 when the company sought to establish its own foothold in the wearables technology game.
But what it probably was not aware of was the fact that Total Recall Technologies, a Hawaii based firm, hired Palmer Luckey to design a wearable head-mounted display prototype. According to Total Recall, Luckey signed a confidentiality agreement and agreed not to use information he obtained in relation to his contractual agreement with Total Recall to break confidentiality and built his own technologies.
Total Recall claims that Luckey received feedback in 2011 and 2012 on his design and went off to start his own Kickstarter campaign to obtain seed money to create his own head-mount display -- the Oculus Rift. Luckey, for his part, denies any wrongdoing and has characterized this as a "brazen attempt" by Total Recall to secure for itself a piece of the $2 billion pie between Oculus and Facebook.
Dismissal of Other Claims
Federal District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco dismissed pretty much every other cause-of-action brought against Luckey and boiled it down to simply a contracts case.
The case against Luckey, Total Recall Technologies v. Palmer Luckey and Oculus VR, Inc., is in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.
Related Resources:
- U.S. Lawsuit Against Founder of Facebook's Oculus can Proceed, Judge says (The Fiscal Times)
- ACLU Launches Pro-Privacy Bills in Tech Campaign (FindLaw's Technologist)
- Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities Turn Everyday Objects Into Threats (FindLaw's Technologist)
- SCOTUS to Review Validity of Patent 'Death Squads' (FindLaw's Technologist)