Palmer Luckey, the founder of Facebook owned virtual reality system Oculus VR Inc, has been slapped with a lawsuit, which accuses him of misappropriating confidential information and proprietary technology.
The plaintiff, Total Recall Technologies, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Northern California on Wednesday saying that it hired Oculus founder Palmer Luckey in 2011 to build a prototype head mounted display. Luckey had signed a confidentiality agreement. He received feedback and information throughout late 2011 and 2012 on how to improve the headset’s design.
The lawsuit alleged that Luckey used the same feedback information received during 2011 and 2012 in his Kickstarter campaign in 2012 for his own head mounted display called the Oculus Rift and started his own company, resulting in a breach of contract with the Hawaii-based company.
Total Recall Technologies is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, but didn’t specify the exact amount. For its lawsuit, the plaintiff has enlisted global law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, whose major client include Google and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. Luckey is accused of breach of contract and fraud, among other claims. Oculus is listed as a defendant along with Luckey.
To recap, Facebook had acquired Oculus in March last year for USD 2 billion in it’s first-ever hardware deal.
This is not the first time that Oculus has been involved in a lawsuit. A year ago, ZeniMax Media Inc., a Maryland-based maker of videogames, sued Luckey, Oculus and Facebook, for allegedly infringing on its intellectual property. The lawsuit is yet to be settled.
