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posted by martyb on Friday June 21 2019, @05:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the now-you-see-it,-now-you-don't dept.

Secretive Magic Leap Says Ex-Engineer Copied Headset for China

Magic Leap Inc., a U.S. startup that makes a headset to project digital objects onto the real world, accused one of its former engineers of stealing its technology to create his own augmented reality device for China.

In a lawsuit filed Monday, Magic Leap alleges that Chi Xu, who left in 2016, exploited its confidential information to "quickly develop a prototype of lightweight, ergonomically designed, mixed reality glasses for use with smart phones and other devices that are strikingly similar" to the Florida-based startup's designs.

The lawsuit marks the latest accusation from an American firm of intellectual property theft by Chinese companies, a perennial sore point that's helped escalate tensions between the world's two largest economies. With more than $2 billion in financing, Magic Leap is one of the better-funded startups delving into so-called augmented or mixed reality, a technology that gives users the illusion that fantastical, three-dimensional digital objects exist in the physical world.

Many have accused Magic Leap of being vaporware. But now its precious vapors have been collected by people who could actually make something out of it.

Also at The Verge.

Previously: Magic Leap Bashed for Being Vaporware
Magic Leap Finally Announces a Product, But is It Still Vaporware?


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by jasassin on Friday June 21 2019, @07:17PM (5 children)

    by jasassin (3566) <jasassin@gmail.com> on Friday June 21 2019, @07:17PM (#858636) Homepage Journal

    I understand completely why Magic Leap is angry.

    But I find it ironic that they hired a Chinese person, and are surprised they had their IP stolen. Also, the fact they have almost three billion dollars and have a product available (pre-orders) after seven years and the Chinese have what sounds like a better product in three.

    Sounds good for consumers, and tough titty for Magic Leap.

    --
    jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 21 2019, @11:27PM (2 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 21 2019, @11:27PM (#858696) Journal

      Either they hired too many Chinese - or they didn't hire enough. Apparently, if they had hired MORE Chinese, they would have brought the product to market, and would be making money now.

      I'm with you on those mixed emotions. If the Chinese really are smarter than our people, maybe we need to shut up, sit down, and stop obstructing the Chinese?

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday June 21 2019, @11:56PM (1 child)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday June 21 2019, @11:56PM (#858709) Journal

        If you can "steal" (copy) and face no consequences whatsoever, smart people will do just that.

        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 22 2019, @02:17PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 22 2019, @02:17PM (#858848)

          If you happily sit on certain secret tech for 7 years and do nothing with it while lavishly living the big life having sucked billions, sorry have no sympathy for you when cry "steal" because someone actually did something practical with such tech and in a fraction of that time.

          Trade secrets are like that, secrets, until are not. You could expect some pity from me should have used public patents instead.

          In someplaces they say that those who don't run... fly.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by TheRaven on Saturday June 22 2019, @09:10AM (1 child)

      by TheRaven (270) on Saturday June 22 2019, @09:10AM (#858799) Journal
      Remember, this is Magic Leap that we're talking about. They're very high on hype, but their rigged demos are worse than their competitor's shipping products.
      --
      sudo mod me up
      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 22 2019, @08:57PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 22 2019, @08:57PM (#858932)

        But, but, they had to rig their demos because the Chinese ate their homework!

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 21 2019, @08:42PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 21 2019, @08:42PM (#858654)

    Tilt Five is getting to market in under a year.
    https://www.tiltfive.com/ [tiltfive.com]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 24 2019, @04:30AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 24 2019, @04:30AM (#859252)

      Sure, no more vaporware brought to you from the very same people of former CastAR...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 24 2019, @06:26AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 24 2019, @06:26AM (#859277)

    Magic Leap bosses were getting in the way of progress and this guy managed to make a better product once he went to China?

    Seems more like a US car manufacturer making a crappy electric car that can only "work" in demo conditions where it's wired to power station and then complaining about copying, trade secrets, etc when their engineer goes to China and makes an electric car can actually work and is not super overpriced.

    It's stuff like this that's why I think patents no longer work in many sectors. Someone can turn some vague ideas into a patent and then tax or obstruct those who can actually implement those ideas and bring it to market; thus slowing down actual progress.

    For example Sony can patent a contact lens that records video without actually having the tech that's close to implementing it:
    https://www.cnet.com/news/sony-patents-contact-lens-that-records-what-you-see/ [cnet.com]
    And that just means they get to tax/block whoever that manages to actually build the thing years later.

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