Oculus VR Inc. founder Palmer Luckey and his company are once again being sued. For this go-round Hawaiian company Total Recall Technologies is accusing Luckey of taking confidential information from TRT in violation of a confidentiality agreement that he signed when he left the company. The complaint also accuses him of passing off that information as his own.
TRT alleges that Luckey was hired in 2011 to help develop a prototype head-mounted display. Because he had this discrete task, he received information and feedback to modify the design; this is the information in question. TRT says Luckey used this stolen information to create Oculus Rift, his own version of the head-mounted display, which he launched via Kickstarter.
TRT filed its complaint with the US District Court in California, alleging "breach of contract and wrongful exploitation and conversion of plaintiff's intellectual and personal property in connection with TRT's development of affordable, immersive, virtual reality technology." The lawsuit demands both punitive and compensatory damages in an unspecified amount.
This isn't Oculus's first time at the legal rodeo. Last year after Facebook acquired Oculus for $2 billion, a company called ZeniMax challenged Oculus to a legal duel-one Facebook insists is fueled by a greedy attempt to cash in on the acquisition.
Global law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan are representing TRT; the firm also handles business for Samsung and Google. Luckey along with Oculus, also charged, will perhaps face their day in court soon.
