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So it begins…  An IP claim against Oculus has been officially announced, and the VR world is buzzing with concern.

Oculu, LLC received a trademark for OCULU on August 16, 2011, stating that their service is “streaming of audio and video material be means of the Internet”. We have confirmation that as of Monday, February 10, 2014, a trademark infringement claim has been filed against Oculus VR Inc., alleging blatant and willful trademark infringement, false designation of origin, trademark dilution and unfair competition against Oculus VR Inc.

OCULU offers a video streaming service similar to YouTube or Vimeo, except they allow full control over the advertisements and what additional content is visible. Their service is marketed to businesses and marketers, and requires a monthly fee.

At the time of this article, the actual court filing is not available to examine, so we do not have any specifics, but according to the news release, the basis for the filing is that Oculus VR is “promoted to stream video over the Internet, including to its virtual reality headset under the plural “OCULUS.”

As stated in the complaint, “Unfortunately, Mr. Luckey, decided that he would simply add an ‘s’ to OCULU’s registered trademark and call his product and online video distribution network, OCULUS.  It could have adopted any number of trademarks. OCULUS is not just headsets. They are openly building a network to ‘stream audio and video by means of the internet’ to its headset using our client’s trademark,” says OCULU attorney John P. Kristensen.

The word oculus is a second declension Latin noun meaning “eye”, the plural of which would be oculi. The USPTO doesn’t want to give anyone the monopoly on a generic word, especially one that’s substantively related to the products.  There are also dozens of other trademark  filings that use “oculus” for such things as plastic surgery services, optical instruments, rifle scopes, and software, which weakens the mark’s distinctiveness.

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According to Kristensen, Oculus VR attempted to purchase OCULU’s website domain at one point. This is a common practice for companies since typos can sometimes bring disastrous results. Google owns www.googel.com which simply redirects you to Google’s main search page.

What is Oculus VR’s next step?

“Defending this type of litigation through trial could easily accrue $250-750k in legal fees”, according to Eric Greenbaum, on the Greenbaum Patent Blog. His thought is that Oculus VR might want to consider the possibilities of settling, but warns that settling might make Oculus VR an easy target for other companies seeking an easy payout. “It’s worth noting that OCULU will have to spend substantial sums to prosecute the case, also racking up legal bills in the $250k range. Oculus VR is currently working with somewhere approaching $100 million in funding. I don’t think OCULU has that kind of cash on hand”, states Eric.

I am personally looking forward to signing up for Oculus VR’s streaming video service. Unfortunately, I don’t think such a thing exists or is planned.

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  • Pontianak

    Sounds like some company is just looking for easy money, and is hoping that since Oculus is a startup, that they won’t have the funds to fight them and just settle to make them go away. Thug mentality. This stuff is just downright rotten.

  • Mageoftheyear

    Oh you silly sods. All this is going to achieve for them is a MASSIVE amount of negative publicity towards their own company.

    You’ve got to wonder, did this company’s leadership ever sit down and map out how this might unfold? Probably not, as Pontianak says – “Thug mentality.”
    Well if they are that stupid, who would want to do business with them now?

  • Fernando

    or capitalize on the Barbara Streisand effect and get free publicity, even though negative (btw, I have never heard of OCULU before).

    IMHO, it is an already won case by Oculus

  • elecman

    This goes to show how rotten the American suing culture is. Common sense has departed the justice system a long time ago. And this could be just the beginning. Patent trolls are rampant these days.

    Please let OCULU know how you feel about this! That is the least we could do.
    http://www.oculu.com/contact-live-video-streaming-platform/

  • VRMatthew

    I went to Oculu’s website and sent them the message below. I hope they see their scarcity mentality for the destructive weapon that it is. No one is going to win here as both will waste resources on an empty case. If this does not get thrown out of court, I believe it is a wake up call for Americans to review their laws as this type of activity negatively impacts their GDP.

    Note to Oculu:
    “I just wanted to write to you and ask that you drop your lawsuit against OculusVR. This is an a abundant thinking, innovative “virtual reality hardware and software company” that is no threat to your video service. There are better areas to focus your time on than suing Oculus. The money you spend and they spend to defend, is only distracting you and them from delivering something new and fresh to the world.

    The world is an abundant place…I hope you find your path in a more positive manner.

    Cheers,
    Matthew

  • Pontianak

    Matthew,

    This is a company hoping for a quick settlement, places a tax on innovation, and a bullying attitude. Do bullies stop bullying somebody because you ask them nicely to stop? NOPE. That just encourages them. Oculus VR needs to annihilate this company in the courts and show it isn’t one to be pushed around like this. Oculus needs to win, and it needs to go for the throat and demand attorney’s fees from Oculu. Go for the jugular. This will keep other litigious companies thinking twice before pursuing Oculus VR as an easy target.

    As for Americans reviewing the laws regarding this sort of thing? We’ve known about this for a long time. This is fairly similar to how patent trolls (aka non-practicing entities in lawyer speak) operate. This kind of thing is hard to put a stop to however.

  • Fred

    How can these people sleep at night (I hope they don’t) I also left very negative comments on their site.
    They need as much negative press as possible (PLEASE VOTE WITH YOUR FEET RIFTERS!!!)
    Leave the comments on the company page.
    http://www.oculu.com/contact-live-video-streaming-platform/