Judge Allows Lawsuit Against Oculus Founder To Proceed

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A judge has ruled that a breach of contract lawsuit against Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey can move forward. Other civil claims, including fraud, were dismissed

Hawaii-based Total Recall Technologies said it hired Luckey in 2011 to build a prototype head-mounted display. Luckey signed a confidentiality agreement, according to the lawsuit filed last year. In 2011 and 2012, Luckey received feedback and information to improve the design of the display, Total Recall claimed. It said Luckey used information he learned from his partnership when he launched a Kickstarter campaign for his own head-mounted display called the Oculus Rift, according to the lawsuit.
 
Reminds me of the Facebook issue with those rich kids suing, because they paid a web developer with some of their trust fund money, and then wanted everything he did afterwards.
 
Wait a minute, this is yet another lawsuit, not about Zenimax?... ohh oculus is in trouble!! hehe
 
Random side note: DVR'ed a bunch of episodes from a holiday Twilight Zone marathon that I'm still working my way through. Last night, saw one that co-starred George. The plot was pretty shaky, but it was interesting seeing him before his Star Trek days. Pretty good acting in a dramatic role. He and another actor were the whole cast, and the entire episode took place in the guy's attic and the stairs leading up to it.
 
"Hawaii-based Total Recall Technologies"

Does anyone else believe the name of this company?
 
So they're claiming they hired him to develop/design a head mounted display (nothing new). It makes no mention of VR aspects (motion tracking / software).

He uses knowledge he got from that venture to make a product that people wanted.

I see no issue with this. It's like hiring a car designer to design a truck for you and then being pissed when he goes off on his own to build his own line of trucks. It'd be completely different had TRT been designing a VR headset for games. But it sounds just like they were just making a head mounted display and Palmer saw other markets for it that they weren't looking at - so instead of being a lapdog and telling them where to look for a market, he went and did it himself. Good for him.


To out this in context. The Tesla Model S was designed originally designed by Henrik Fisker until he jumped ship to create Fisker Motors and the Karma. The Karma (Tesla claims) is the original Tesla Model S that they paid for the design of, only for him to breach agreements and launch on his own. The lawsuit ended in Fisker's favor. You don't have to look too far past the car styling to see there's likely some truth in it. But the court felt it was legal and if that got through, then I doubt this will.
 
So they're claiming they hired him to develop/design a head mounted display (nothing new). It makes no mention of VR aspects (motion tracking / software).

He uses knowledge he got from that venture to make a product that people wanted.

I see no issue with this. It's like hiring a car designer to design a truck for you and then being pissed when he goes off on his own to build his own line of trucks. It'd be completely different had TRT been designing a VR headset for games. But it sounds just like they were just making a head mounted display and Palmer saw other markets for it that they weren't looking at - so instead of being a lapdog and telling them where to look for a market, he went and did it himself. Good for him.


To out this in context. The Tesla Model S was designed originally designed by Henrik Fisker until he jumped ship to create Fisker Motors and the Karma. The Karma (Tesla claims) is the original Tesla Model S that they paid for the design of, only for him to breach agreements and launch on his own. The lawsuit ended in Fisker's favor. You don't have to look too far past the car styling to see there's likely some truth in it. But the court felt it was legal and if that got through, then I doubt this will.

Very informative post, thanks for this. Had been wondering how this might play out, and this sums it up.
 
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