Total Recall Technologies v. Palmer Luckey
Opinion
Trial Court Opinion
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
TOTAL RECALL TECHNOLOGIES, Plaintiff, No. C 15-02281 WHA
v.
ORDER RE CONTRACT
PALMER LUCKEY, et al., CONSTRUCTION, DAUBERT
MOTIONS, AND TRIAL SETTING
Defendants.
15 Palmer Luckey frequented Internet forums on virtual reality and head-mounted displays, i.e., modern electronic versions of the old View Master. He sold his models and kits online. Then eighteen, he came to the attention of Thomas Seidl, an entrepreneur in his mid-thirties. Seidl had developed a 3D 360° camera and he wanted to pair it with a head-mounted display to view its footage, then market the combination. In late 2010, he contacted Luckey to design the head-mounted display. They exchanged many emails. These emails canvassed, among other things, the pixel count of the panel (another word for screen), the physical dimensions of the panel, the advantages and disadvantages of a single panel versus multiple panels, the weight of the overall unit, whether it…