Oculus VR and Palmer Luckey Sued

Published: May 22, 2015 9:12 PM /

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oculus rift

Oculus VR, the company behind the Oculus Rift, is being sued again, along with founder Palmer Luckey. This time, the lawsuit is over a possible breach of contract and "wrongful exploitation" of the Oculus Rift design.

The suit was filed by Total Recall Technologies, based in Hawaii. The plaintiff in the lawsuit claims, as a former employer of Luckey, that Luckey agreed to confidentiality on August 1 of 2011, and that he was to build a prototype for Total Recall.

The prototype was supposed to be the exclusive property of Total Recall. The suit alleges that Luckey's design for the VR headset that would become the Oculus Rift is not fully his own either. Total Recall alleges that Thomas Seidl, one of the two partners of the company, also contributed to the design.

Finally, the suit states that Luckey was still under contract with Total Recall during the 2012 Kickstarter campaign.

Total Recall is seeking punitive, compensatory, and exemplary damages from both Luckey and Oculus VR, as well as interest and an injunctive  relief.

In other words, Total Recall is stating that Palmer Luckey not only breached his contract as an employee of their company, but also possibly stole their idea behind the Oculus Rift, and is looking to be paid for damages and possibly posing an injunction on Oculus VR.

Oculus VR has recently announced plans for their consumer unit, which is expected for release in 2016. Pre-orders are expected to begin in the fall. Specifications for the Oculus Rift have also been released recently.

Oculus VR has been sued before. In 2014, Zenimax sued Oculus over misappropriation of it's IP, where former employee John Carmack of Id Software allegedly took software without Zenimax's permission. The Zenimax suit is still ongoing.

So what do you think? Is Luckey and Oculus VR guilty of this? Can Total Recall produce enough evidence? Leave your comments below. 

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| Staff Writer

A longtime player of games, creator of worlds, and teacher of minds. Robert has worked many positions over the years, from college professor to education… More about Robert