Is Tech Mogul's Row With Movie Studios Another Waymo v. Uber?
Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur Stephen Perlman says a former employee absconded with cutting-edge special effects technology and sold it to a rival. Sound familiar?
August 01, 2017 at 05:13 PM
20 minute read
Last month, a San Francisco tech company accused several motion picture studios of using stolen intellectual property to forge dazzling breakthroughs in graphics technology, fueling the success of blockbusters such as “Beauty and the Beast” and “Terminator: Genisys.”
Rearden LLC, the incubator operated by tech entrepreneur Stephen Perlman, says a former employee absconded with cameras, lighting and computer software that make up MOVA Contour Reality Capture technology and sold it to a rival graphics company, which then hired LaSalle into a key leadership role. Perlman accuses the studios of working with the employee's new company, Digital Domain, when they knew or should have known that Perlman's company owned the technology.
Does this have a familiar ring? If it doesn't, then we hereby offer six reasons Perlman's dispute with Greg LaSalle, Digital Domain, The Walt Disney Co., Paramount Pictures Corp. and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. reminds us of Google Inc.'s dispute with Anthony Levandowski, Otto Trucking LLC and Uber Technologies Inc.
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