Oculus Founder Hit With Lawsuit 122
An anonymous reader writes: Palmer Luckey, founder of VR headset-maker Oculus, has been sued by a company accusing him of taking their confidential information and passing it off as his own. Total Recall Technologies, based in Hawaii, claims it hired Luckey in 2011 to build a head-mounted display. Part of that employment involved Luckey signing a confidentiality agreement. In August, 2012, Luckey launched a Kickstarter campaign for the Oculus Rift headset, and Facebook bought his company last year for $2 billion. TRT is seeking compensatory and punitive damages (PDF).
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Laches (Score:2)
That's the kind of intentionally harmful delay for which the laches defense [wikipedia.org] was designed.
Re:What? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would they sue him before he got the money? That would be pretty stupid.
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Isn't there laws that a lawsuit has to happen within a given time frame? Especially in cases like this one where facts have been all over the news for a very long time?
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No it doesn't dumbass... It starts from the violation of contract. Otherwise you have nothing to sue over.
From Wikipedia:
Emphasis added.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S... [wikipedia.org]
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In Hawaii, the statute of limitations for a lawsuit over a written or oral contract appears to be 6 years. In California, where I'm guessing Luckey resides, it appears to be 4 years for a written contract, and 2 for an oral one. (Source: http://www.nolo.com/legal-ency... [nolo.com])
Re:What? (Score:4, Insightful)
Not really. I believe there is a clean hands doctrine that says if your inaction has amplified the harm then you might not get relief for that. For example if you live in the downstairs apartment and notice water is leaking from the upstairs apartment but don't do anything to stop it or limit the damage because you'd rather get the insurance money you can get cut short. It's a lot trickier with an IP issue, is it a lump transfer or an ongoing violation but I think it has most the characteristics of the former where you take a half-finished product and hand it to someone else to finish. In that case there's no harm in delaying apart from the statute of limitations.
Let's say I'm in an accident with you, but it seems at first to not be a big deal and I don't sue for damages. However it turns out it won't heal properly and I lose a lot of money and decide to sue anyway. Am I too late? No, those costs aren't caused by the delay, they'd come no matter what and it won't count against me. Of course I'm not in the US, there you find the nearest ambulance chaser and sue for $millions, unless it was a hobo that hurt you.
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Let's say I'm in an accident with you, but it seems at first to not be a big deal and I don't sue for damages. However it turns out it won't heal properly and I lose a lot of money and decide to sue anyway. Am I too late? No
YES, you are too late, there are very strict time limits for timely filing of automobile liability insurance claims. If you don't make claims of injury promptly, you get nothing.
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Because there might have been other things going on behind the scenes that are yet to come to light? Perhaps this filing is just the latest action in a series, most of which happened in private between the parties? Not everyone launches into a lawsuit without trying other redress first - especially if contract cases are likely to be thrown out if lesser mediations have been skipped in the first place.
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So Long? (Score:1)
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If this is true, why didn't he get hit with a law suit earlier?
It wasn't enough to pay the lawyers.
Mark Zuckerburg (Score:1)
Kind of Ironic that Zuckerburg got a similar lawsuit after facebook became popular and now FB owns Oculus
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Please explain how this is irony.
Re:Mark Zuckerburg (Score:5, Funny)
It's like rain on a wedding day.
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It's like rain on a wedding day.
Which is not ironic. Unless you're marrying the weatherman, and he set the date. [mrcrowley.org]
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It's like rain on a wedding day.
Which is not ironic.
Not sure if I should write "no kidding", or simply go with the traditional "whoosh".
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No, I got it. I just wanted an excuse to provide the link to Ed Byrne's monologue.
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Ahhh rightio, Carry on then, it was quite a satisfying read :-)
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a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.
Your wedding is supposed to be the happiest day of your life. If this picture doesn't make you smile at least a little [virginmedia.com], then you take life too seriously.
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But if you're aware of the concept of irony, and people find it amusing, and that people are fond of posting things they find amusing, this logically means that you're expecting something unexpected, which thus is not unexpected, thus nothing can be ironic to one who knows of irony, not even this very fact.
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The ironic thing is I actually did quote verbatim one of the definitions, but you didn't read it.
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Your wedding is supposed to be the happiest day of your life, if you are a religious nutjob.
FTFY
And yes, that picture is funny because it features a couple of costumed mooks getting drenched.
You clearly have never met a woman. Wedding fever is probably even worse among the non-believers than religious people.
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Well then, it's like a traffic jam when you're already late.
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We not only got rain, but hail. It worked out fine.
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It's really hard and gets rusty in the rain?
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I'll take that starter for 5pts.
It would appear that the lawsuit has been enabled because of the acquisition of the company by a man who has a history of beating off such lawsuits.
Butt hurt... (Score:1)
Sounds like they're a little butt hurt because their product... well, I've never heard of it.
A confidentiality agreement is NOT a non-compete agreement which I doubt they could really enforce anyway since a lot of states refuse to recognize them.
As long as he didn't steal anything from them or give out their internal secrets nothing will come of this and he may even get them to cover his legal expenses in the end. I'd bet $5 that this lawsuit is more about getting their name heard than anything else.
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Wow, really?
Their name is Total Recall Technologies. I've heard about them decades ago [youtube.com].
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Wow, really?
Their name is Total Recall Technologies. I've heard about them decades ago [youtube.com].
Right. After they borrowed their very name from some prior art, it seems a bit like the pot calling the kettle a gateway kitchen accessory.
To be fair, (FTA), Senior Luckey was hired by the plaintiff to build a head-mounted display, which is seemingly word-for-word the letter of his Kickstarter.
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And there have been references to goggles or headsets that provide virtual reality since at least the 1930's, so if you're going to sue someone for taking your idea, you might want to make sure it wasn't someone's idea since way before you were born.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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A confidentiality agreement is NOT a non-compete agreement which I doubt they could really enforce anyway since a lot of states refuse to recognize them.
Non-competes are legally unenforceable when they stop you realistically changing jobs within your field. Things get murkier when your new employer isn't in that field already, and you're the one that brings the into it. It's murkier still when your new employer is YOU. This isn't a question of non-compete, it's a question of trade secrets, because when the employee is working from the ground up, his prior knowledge is based entirely on the previous employer's project, whereas when there's a partly-built pro
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If this guy really used Total Recall's confidential IP, which I'm not saying necessarily happened, but it seems like it may be possible, then Facebook's acquisition would be void... and they could sue the person they bought it from for no less than every single cent that they spent buying it out, probably with interest, and punative damages thrown in for good measure.
This company is working within what I understand is the legally permissable 5-year limitation on NDA's in the high technology industry (alb
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If this guy really used Total Recall's confidential IP
There is NO "confidential IP" anywhere in this type of display. This exact same technology has been implemented over and over again for decades. Any patents have expired a long time ago. You can write contracts all day long that assert "IP" but they are meaningless unless there is some sort of novelty. Perhaps you can pick up an old copy of "Mondo 2000" or "Wired" and you will see the exact same type of heads up display being used in the 1990s.
TL;DR version (Score:4, Insightful)
He didn't give hinself shock treatment to erase his memory of the time he worked with us and he failed to deny that he existed during the years of 2011 and 2012. Even though he didn't steal our IP (or we would have sued for that), we want to sue anyway because we fumbled the future and he didn't!
Re:TL;DR version (Score:5, Insightful)
We consulted our lawyers, and they assure us that it'll be cheaper for them to pay us off than fight us, so free money!
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Who Is Total Recall Technologies? (Score:1)
I googled the life out of this and could not find them. I did find a company by that name in Panaji, Goa, India, but I do not see how they may be related. I'm puzzled.
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But they have a YouTube video, so clearly this is all on the up and up.
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Made me laugh. Funny a second time! I loved the video - classic.... very very classic. Thanks.
did the tech exist in 2010-12? (Score:1)
Did the 3d power or the custom display tech required for HTC/oculus exist in 2010-2012? I mean head mount displays with len's been around but i dont think any of them worked worth a crap. i dont believe they have a leg to stand on seeing how both oculus/valve had some of the best of the best work on there setups just not one person
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Yes. I had head-mounted dual-screen (640x480) displays for gaming back in the days of the GeForce 5 and 6.
Horrible contrast ratio (shit TFT LCDs) but great for watching porno DVDs without anyone else watching.
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HMD's have been around since LONG before there were 3D graphics on the PC at all. They'd been used (for example) on military flight simulator back when you'd need a million dollars of mainframe hardware to generate a 3D image. I very much doubt that any of this tech is actually new. Probably someone like Evans & Sutherland were the first to do it - and they had 3D graphics back in the late 1970's. I doubt that much of the general concept is still patentable - so this argument is probably over some
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it's just a high resolution phone screen and two lenses. and gyro/accel chips(which existed as well)
the tech to do it existed most certainly. high resolution displays small/big enough cheaply? nope. not even for the rift1.
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Very often the adoption of a novel technology has more to do with the caprice of companies and organisations than the technical capabilities. I first used a touch-screen device in 1989 which was an add-on for standard 14in (S)VGA monitors priced at around $200. It interfaced with the computer through an RS-232 connection, s
It's hard out there for a patent troll (Score:3, Insightful)
Patent trolls are like pimps without the cool clothes and '72 Riviera with fur-lined windows.
They both make their money off other people's work.
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what patent troll? in fact, what patents?
the article says he's being sued for fraud and breach of contract (whatever the merits of that may be). this seems to be a matter of trade secrets, which is basically the opposite of patents.
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And they waited until the Oculus Rift is ready for release to file suit.
This is patent trolling by another name. They're trying to make money off someone else's work.
Amiga was first (Score:2)
It did it all, just like Oculus.
But 1/10000th the cpu power, and 1/10th the res.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
To enjoin him (Score:2)
As another poster had already mentioned, what's the point of sue *before* he got the money?
To enjoin him from further use of trade secrets so that you can sell your product without fear of unfair competition from his.
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Google "mitigation of damages". You're supposed to stop the violation as soon as it has caused you harm. A party can't wait for greater harm to come to them in hopes of a bigger payout. That's not what the courts are for.
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So we agree that it's not patent trolling. Great.
You can keep on making up whatever justifications you want in order to keep swaying with the popular opinion.
If the stuff was really confidential.... (Score:2)
Total Recall could, of course, license the tech to Facebook, and probably make a tidy profit while doing so.
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Y can't be sued for anything if they do not know that it was originally confidential, but they *CAN* be sued for using said information after they have learned that it was misappropriated, which they could learn very shortly afterwards. Sort of like how you can't be prosecuted for buying stolen merchandise from someone else if you didn't realize that it was stolen, but you aren't allowed to keep what you bought once its origin has come to light. You are, however, allowed to sue the person you bought it f
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A company which could not get a working product and now wants to cash in on prior and subsequent work by its one time employee
has a strong motive to claim all sorts of exclusivity to which it is not entitled.
maybe they couldn't get the product to work because their engineer quit and took the blueprints with him?
This will get thrown out... (Score:2, Interesting)
PalmerTech as he exists on the MTBS boards has a demonstrated development cycle on the rift stretching back to 2009.
Arguably the most important developments were made throughout 2010 with the PR1 concept.
This includes documented evidence of all the major design elements that are evident in the rift to date.
Unless he sold them the IP, then they have no leg to stand on.
Nothing like a beat up to hide the facts.
Source: 5 seconds with google.
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Unless he sold them the IP, then they have no leg to stand on.
"IP" is not any sort of legal construct. There is not protection anywhere for "IP". Do you mean "patent"? Why don't you say "patent"?
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"IP" is not any sort of legal construct.
Intellectual property is a category including copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, and right of publicity. It has meant that in the United States Code since 1996 when Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act became law.
Do you mean "patent"? Why don't you say "patent"?
Because a single product may be covered by interlocking or overlapping copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets that are licensed as a package.
Then what does section 230 mean? (Score:2)
There is no thing called IP, it doesn't exist. Never has. Never will.
Then how would you describe the legal effect of 47 USC 230(e)(2) [cornell.edu]? "Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or expand any law pertaining to intellectual property."
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The point here isn't whether Palmer Luckey started development of the rift before being involved with Total Recall Technologies, it is whether any of the information that Palmer Luckey acquired from TRT or any of the ideas/improvements he came up with working for TRT (Source: 5 seconds with google for the term 'work for hire') found their way into the Oculus Rift. If TRT can prove anything like that, and they can prove NDA agreements, they may indeed have a case.
The timing here is interesting, but not surpr
That's clever then... (Score:2)
Good (Score:1)
If you build it... (Score:1)
Re:I'M ROYAL (Score:5, Funny)
Are you feeling Luckey, PUNK?
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And life is like a cake.
Not bad at all (Score:5, Insightful)
I was a backer. Were you? Or do you feel compelling to complain on behalf of other people?
I got the main thing I backed it for - a dev kit.
Facebook buying them means an investment in learning to program for the Rift is probably 1000x more useful than it would have been otherwise.
I understand people are wary of Facebook, and for good reason. But I have seen huge upsides with pretty much no downside since Facebook bought the company.
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A confidentiality agreement trumps that notion. If the guy signed an NDA and then violated the NDA within its duration, he can be sued by TRT. The court can also grant an injunction against Facebook, even though they were not involved in the NDA, from utilizing that information... and Facebook can rightfully sue the person they got it from as well.
Of course, that's all assuming that the guy really did violate a confidentiality agreement. For all we know, TRT's claims may be entirely specious.
IANAL,