[Chemy JMHT]

Polygon is reporting that the Oculus lawsuit has ended with a Texas jury awarding half a billion dollars to ZeniMax.

The jury found that Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey failed to comply with a non-disclosure agreement, but also found that Oculus did not misappropriate trade secrets.

Oculus said they plan to appeal the verdict.

ZeniMax accused Oculus and parent company Facebook of stealing trade secrets from the company in the development of the Oculus Rift headset, saying former senior ZeniMax employee John Carmack provided the technology to Oculus when he left to become Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer.

Facebook purchased Oculus VR in 2014 for $2 billion.

In his closing arguments, ZeniMax attorney Anthony Sammi said the company should be awarded $2 billion in compensation and another $2 billion in punitive damages.

An Oculus spokesperson told Polygon that “the heart of this case was about whether Oculus stole ZeniMax’s trade secrets, and the jury found decisively in our favor,” though the company was disappointed with other aspects of the verdict.

Sources:

- ZeniMax Awarded a Half Billion in Lawsuit Against Facebook
- http://www.polygon.com/2017/2/1/1447...awsuit-verdict

[VirtuaTyKing]

Oculus owner Facebook ordered to pay Zenimax $500m in virtual reality lawsuit • Eurogamer.net

To add to this. In this article it says they might attempt to stop the headset being sold!

I think they mean sales halted until the coding is changed.

[iThunderbirt]

Oculus owner Facebook ordered to pay Zenimax $500m in virtual reality lawsuit • Eurogamer.net

To add to this. In this article it says they might attempt to stop the headset being sold!

I think they mean sales halted until the coding is changed.

Ouch! Imagine if they win and Oculus has to stop selling the Rift? That would be a slap in the face to those who contributed to their Kickstarter campaign...

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[Chemy JMHT]

I read the same, if that happens I think Oculus will be in bad shape for long enough and it may become a problem for VR in general, but also Facebook is appealing the decision so let see what happens.

[iThunderbirt]

John Carmack didn't like the verdict. Especially the part where ZeniMax said he copy source code.

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[Cale Hunt]

Jeez...hard to believe they could halt sales of the Rift.

[Chemy JMHT]

Jeez...hard to believe they could halt sales of the Rift.

But Facebook is appealing the decision of the one for the 500MM so I guess it will take longer for ZeniMax to halt the sells.

[pjs37]

But Facebook is appealing the decision of the one for the 500MM so I guess it will take longer for ZeniMax to halt the sells.

It is unlikely they will ever actually get an injunction to halt sales of the devices since they were not found mis-appropriating trade secrets but "merely" for violating an NDA. It will be a long and windy road and both companies have deep enough pockets it will drag out like the Samsung vs Apple case to the point it is seemingly irrelevant.