Augmented reality startup Nreal is asking a court to throw out a lawsuit from Magic Leap, saying the heavily touted startup's suit amounts to sour grapes rather than a breach of contract.
Why it matters: The virtual reality and augmented reality markets are taking longer to develop, prompting companies to compete for their slice of a smaller-than-anticipated pie.
- In June, Magic Leap sued Nreal and CEO Chi Xu, who worked at Magic Leap for about a year, from mid-2015 to mid-2016. The suit alleges that Xu and Nreal are exploiting "Magic Leap's confidential and proprietary information to unfairly compete in the development of wearable spatial computing glasses and other related technology."
- In its motion to dismiss, Nreal said "rather than focus on developing a superior product, Magic Leap has resorted to filing lawsuits to slow down new entrants in the AR market."
- Magic Leap was not immediately available for comment.
The big picture: Despite tons of buzz and billions of dollars in funding, Magic Leap has struggled to get its product to market, and recently announced layoffs.
- It's also had quite a bit of litigation for a young company, including a prior trade secret suit against an ex-employee, a legal fight with its former head of security, and a now-settled sex discrimination case with another former employee.
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