Warby Parker sued for alleged tech theft

The allegations relate to the technology behind Warby Parker’s Prescription Check service, which Opternative says was derived from its own intellectual property.Opternative is seeking extensive financial compensation, and co-founder Dr Steven Lee told online news site Tech Crunch he was disappointed that, “another company, which was in the startup category like us not too long ago, would take advantage of us for their own financial gain.“We have spent countless hours, days, weeks and years pouring our hearts and minds into building Opternative’s intellectual property and making ocular telehealth accessible to more people.”{{quote-A:R-W:500-Q: Both parties agreed to execute an NDA which forbid the eyewear retailer from using information regarding Opternative’s technology or reverse-engineering the online eye test method. }}Opternative’s eye test technology was developed in 2013 and passed clinical trials in 2015. According to the lawsuit, Warby Parker reached out to Opternative in 2013 for a partnership venture.Both parties agreed to execute an NDA which forbid the eyewear retailer from using information regarding Opternative’s technology or reverse-engineering the online eye test method.The lawsuit further alleged that the partnership did not proceed as planned, but instead Warby Parker moved forward by developing its own eye exam in violation of the signed agreents. Opternative is also pushing for damages related to breach of contract against the eyewear retailer.Warby Parker has issued a statent denying it used Opternative’s eye test when developing their own version, and suggested the lawsuit was due to the eyewear retailer ending the partnership between the two companies.“The preposterous claims made by Opternative do not accurately reflect reality, and we’re prepared to take all necessary steps to defeat th. This is an unfortunate example of a company choosing to address competition with litigation instead of innovation,” the statent from Warby Parker stressed.“We independently developed Prescription Check and did not have access to or use any of Opternative’s technical information that could have benefited the development of our app.”