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Forums - Gaming - ZeniMax wins $500m from Facebook

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badgenome on 01 February 2017

Facebook ordered to pay $500 million in damages over VR suit

Facebook's Oculus lost a case against game maker ZeniMax, leaving the tech company on the hook for $500 million.

A jury ordered Facebook to pay $500 million in damages to ZeniMax due to theft of intellectual property on Wednesday.

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg told CNBC's Julia Boorstin that she was "disappointed in certain elements of the decision." Sandberg added she was "considering our options to appeal," and the verdict was "not material to our financials."

ZeniMax sued Oculus for allegedly stealing its intellectual property. The company claimed Oculus founder Palmer Luckey "commercially exploited" Zenimax computer code and trade secrets in order to develop its products. It also said Oculus' VR device Oculus Rift was "primitive" until John Carmack, Oculus chief technology officer and founder of a company owned by ZeniMax, improved on the device using his knowledge from his previous work as a ZeniMax employee.

The jury found Oculus guilty of copyright infringement, failure to comply with a non-disclosure agreement, and misuse of Oculus trademarks ("false designation.") However, it found Oculus innocent of other charges, including theft of trade secrets.

Oculus said it would appeal the ruling."The heart of this case was about whether Oculus stole ZeniMax's trade secrets, and the jury found decisively in our favor. We're obviously disappointed by a few other aspects of today's verdict, but we are undeterred," the company told CNBC. "We look forward to filing our appeal and eventually putting this litigation behind us."

Facebook purchased Oculus in 2014. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in court he was not aware of the intellectual property claims between Oculus and ZeniMax.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/01/facebook-loses-vr-case.html

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monocle_layton on 01 February 2017

Good- Facebook shouldn't be allowed to steal ideas and run off with the money



Hynad on 01 February 2017
monocle_layton said:
Good- Facebook shouldn't be allowed to steal ideas and run off with the money

Facebook didn't do a thing.

They purchased Oculus long after any of this happened.



VGPolyglot on 01 February 2017

Now they can buy the TimeSplitters IP from Crytek and make a 4th one! They've already made a new Wolfenstein and Doom, and are making a new Prey and Quake, why not add another FPS to the list?



Shiken on 01 February 2017
VGPolyglot said:
Now they can buy the TimeSplitters IP from Crytek and make a 4th one! They've already made a new Wolfenstein and Doom, and are making a new Prey and Quake, why not add another FPS to the list?

Omg I would kill for this franchise to come back!



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Kerotan on 01 February 2017

Delighted. They own Bethesda don't they? I'm always happy to hear companies I like get a big payday and let's be realistic here. This is pennies to Facebook.



Zkuq on 01 February 2017

This is interesting, that's for sure. I'm still kind of thinking that Carmack must've taken some other data, which ZeniMax saw as an opportunity and now won. It really baffles me why Carmack took the data with him because surely he must've known it's going to cause trouble. Or maybe he and the Oculus folks just thought it's not going to be a big deal. I mean, if Oculus failed, ZeniMax probably wouldn't have been very interested, and considering the success Oculus has seen so far, $500 million probably isn't THAT bad.



Mr Puggsly on 01 February 2017
Bandorr said:
I wish I knew when Microsoft removed their "high-fidelity VR" from their slogan.
Before or after Oculus got sued.

Microsofts VR I think was a tie in with Oculus. So Oculus getting sued could have easily put a halt on that partnership.

Specially since Zenimax may be seeking an injuction to stop the sale of the headsets.

Maybe, but its also possible MS doesent feel VR is something worth pushing. VR hasnt done well so far even if it has potential in the future.



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VAMatt on 01 February 2017

I don't know about the merits of this particular case. But, I did not buy in two the legal theory that someone can own an idea.

I do agree that a company should be able to enforce a non-disclosure agreement, but that would only apply to the former employee that violated it. I think it is ridiculous that Facebook should have to pay someone's former employer because that guy learn stuff while working for them that he later used to benefit another company.



onionberry on 01 February 2017

evil vs evil