Oculus VR, recently acquired by Facebook, is seen as the undisputed leader in the ‘Virtual Reality’ market. However, the company founder Palmer Luckey is going through a sticky patch!
In 2012, Oculus with a device called ‘Oculus Rift’ took the market by storm. This next-generation headset had a smartphone’s screen and came at a pocket-friendly price of $349. It also caught the attention of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who in March 2014 bought Oculus for $2 billion.
However, it is not all rosy for the company at the moment. Oculus VR Inc’ founder, Palmer Luckey, has landed in the soup, being accused of misappropriating confidential information and proprietary technology. The allegations can be traced to events that took place in 2011-2012.
The petitioner, Total Recall Technologies (TRT), based out of Hawaii, has alleged that Luckey flouted a non-disclosure agreement he had signed with the hardware company in 2011. Ron Igra and Thomas Seidl of TRT, filed the lawsuit, in the US District Court in Northern California on Wednesday.
The suit stated that Palmer Luckey was hired by the plaintiff in 2011 to help them build a prototype VR headset. Luckey had signed a confidentiality agreement, not to part with the information he received throughout 2011 and 2012 or to use it for his own benefit. TRT supplied the parts with which to construct the headset, however, Luckey started his company and used it to create his own head mounted display called the Oculus Rift prototype. Therefore, Luckey was accused of conducting breach of contract and fraud with TRT.
However, Luckey has been denying the charges and Oculus is listed as a defendant along with him. This is the second time the VR giant has had to face such accusations in the last two years. Another case pending settlement is that of ZeniMax Media Inc, the Maryland-based maker of videogames, which has brought in similar charges of information breach and intellectual property infringement against Luckey.