The maker of virtual reality headsets, Oculus, which was acquired by Facebook (FB, Financial) in 2014 for $2 billion, is under immense pressure as its founder Palmer Luckey is being sued by his earlier company for using their developmental “trade-secrets” as his own while making the Oculus Rift VR headset. Though Mark Zuckerberg has not commented on this lawsuit, it might create a dent in the reputation of the social networking giant’s goodwill if Luckey is proved to be guilty after a series of investigations. Let’s quickly take a sneak peek into the details of the lawsuit that has been filed by the plaintiff, Hawaii-based company Total Recall Technologies.
The details follow
As per a Reuters report, Total Recall has claimed that after it hired Luckey in 2011 to build a prototype head mounted display, the founder of Oculus had signed a confidentiality agreement of not using its technology for developing other head mounted displays in the future. Through 2011 and 2012, Luckey received immense information about improvement of the design of the display. Soon thereafter, Luckey separated himself from Total Recall Technologies and started his Kickstarter campaign which was focused on developing his own head mounted display called the Oculus Rift. Luckey is accused of using the proprietary trade secrets and the design features he learned from Total Recall Technologies while developing his own technology when he proceeded with his Kickstarter project.
The lawsuit states that the developmental technology used for making such a headset incorporates the secret information Luckey gained during his partnership with Total Recall Technologies.
Though Facebook’s representatives declined to comment on this lawsuit filed against the Oculus VR founder, he has been accused of breach of contract and fraud among the other claims filed by the Hawaiian technology company. The lawsuit further states – “Without informing [Total Recall Technologies] ... Luckey took the information he learned from the Partnership, as well as the prototype that he built for TRT using design features and other confidential information and materials supplied by the Partnership…”
Total Recall Technologies has enlisted global law firm Quinn Emaneul Urquhart & Sullivan for the lawsuit and it is to be noted that this firm lists other technology stalwarts like Google (GOOG, Financial) and Samsung Electronics Ltd. (SSNLF, Financial) as its major clients.
This lawsuit follows the accusation put forth in 2014 by ZeniMax Media against the Oculus founder that had accused him of leakage of “trade secrets” and their misuse.
To conclude
In 2014, when Facebook bought Oculus he had emphasized upon converting the relationship into a “long-term bet” that would aid in making virtual reality a part of the daily life of people. Now with the lawsuit being filed against Luckey, it remains to be seen whether it finally impacts the release of the Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset globally early next year. Also, it remains to be seen whether Facebook’s reputation will be impacted.
