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News Total Recall's suit against Oculus VR, Luckey dismissed

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 13 Mar 2017.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Gareth Halfacree, 13 Mar 2017
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  2. greigaitken

    greigaitken Minimodder

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    that Seidl chap sounds ungreedy
     
    greigaitken, 13 Mar 2017
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  3. fix-the-spade

    fix-the-spade Multimodder

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    I got the impression from this that TRT were effectively contract trolls, signing a teenage Luckey up to a 'we own your ass,' type contract that was only vaguely legal. Luckey doesn't seem to have a very good business brain so it wouldn't surprise me if he signed something without reading it properly.

    One guy sounds like he's got dollar sign blindness and the other looks like he knew full well that Facebook's lawyers would grind them into the dirt.
     
    fix-the-spade, 13 Mar 2017
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  4. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    I'm not sure that's fair: they hired Luckey to build a prototype VR headset, he produced a round one prototype, they gave him some feedback, then he disappeared - only to pop up on Kickstarter with a prototype VR headset. Signing an NDA and an agreement that anything you build on the company dime belongs to the company is absolutely normal, and in no way the sign of a 'contract troll.' Hell, Steve Wozniak had to get permission from Hewlett Packard to sell the Apple personal computer, 'cos his contract had the same clause - and he wasn't even working on the thing on company time.

    TRT hired Luckey to build a thing, retained rights to the thing, and one-half of TRT believes Luckey then wandered off with the thing and got rich (though the other half seems to think that's either rubbish or simply not provable when you're going up against the might of the Facebook legal department.)

    But Igra's agreement with Seidl does suggest he sees the lawsuit as TRT's only hope of a big payday (which, now that it's lost the opportunity to be the first to hit the market with a commercialised next-gen VR headset, is probably entirely true.)
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 13 Mar 2017
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  5. edzieba

    edzieba Virtual Realist

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    Not quite: he made a prototype, sent it to them, they sent it back with suggestions for modifications, but then dropped the contract (i.e. no more payments, no demands for the HMD back, etc). This is before the PR prototype series that culminated in the version that was sent to Carmack.
    Given the contract had an explicit clause for "if we decide not to go forward, you own it" and they decided not to go forward, it seems pretty cut and dried. Particularly when the partner who was actually interacting with Luckey (Siedl) agrees with Luckey.
     
    edzieba, 13 Mar 2017
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  6. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Fair point, that, and a big part of the reason Seidl'll have not agreed to the lawsuit. Guess they should have just kept going forward, then they could have been bought by Facebook for all the money!
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 13 Mar 2017
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