Oculus VR Founder Palmer Luckey is facing a lawsuit from his former employer, Total Recall Technologies, which claims that Luckey unlawfully passed off the work he did for the Hawaii-based company as his own when he created Oculus Rift.

Total Recall claims that Luckey was hired to work on a head mounted display for the company in 2011, during which time he signed a contract and a non-disclosure agreement. The company says that Luckey used the knowledge he gained working on their product to develop the virtual reality headset that would eventually become Oculus Rift.

“Without informing the Partnership, on information and belief,” the lawsuit says; “Luckey took the information he learned from the Partnership, as well as the prototype that he built for the TRT using design features and other confidential information and materials supplied by the Partnership, and passed it off to others as his own.”

According to The Recorder, Total Recall’s lawsuit “seeks compensatory and punitive damages but does not specify an amount.”

Total Recall will need to demonstrate that the innovations used in Oculus Rift were taken directly from the product Luckey helped create for them, rather than simply logical decisions based on experience with VR. The company’s specific complaint centers on its patented method of recording video of a real-world scene and projecting it on an “ultra-wide field of view” on a head mounted display.

The suit also cites “confidential feedback and information” that were given to Luckey to help him improve his designs.

Why exactly Total Recall has waited several years before finally bringing Luckey to court is unclear, as the Oculus Rift Kickstarter launched nearly three years ago. One factor that may play a role in the timing of the suit is the fact that Oculus now has the full financial weight of Facebook Inc. behind it, and a consumer version of Oculus Rift is finally on the horizon.

Because of this, Total Recall likely faces a tougher legal battle now, but possibly a bigger payday as well.

Update: An Oculus spokesperson told Forbes: “The case is meritless and we will vigorously defend.”

Image credit: Bago Games via Flickr (license)