Facebook owes ZeniMax $500M in Oculus suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A Dallas jury found Wednesday that Facebook is required to pay $500 million to tech company ZeniMax in a lawsuit that questioned the technological origins of the revolutionary virtual reality goggle Oculus Rift.

The news, which was first reported on 

Maryland-based ZeniMax had sought as much $4billion  in compensation and damages. The gaming company had alleged that when Facebook purchased Oculus from inventor Palmer Luckey for nearly $3 billion in 2014, it acquired a product that had been developed with its expertise.

"Technology is the foundation of our business and we consider the theft of our intellectual property to be a serious matter," said Robert Altman, chairman and CEO of ZeniMax, in a statement. "We appreciate the jury’s finding against the defendants."

ZeniMax also said it is considering whether to seek an injunction against Oculus and Facebook to prevent them from using the "misappropriated technology."

Facebook said it would appeal the verdict.

“The heart of this case was about whether Oculus stole ZeniMax's trade secrets, and the jury found decisively in our favor," a Facebook statement read. "We're obviously disappointed by a few other aspects of today's verdict, but we are undeterred. Oculus products are built with Oculus technology. ... We look forward to filing our appeal and eventually putting this litigation behind us.”

The Polygon report, which said Oculus will be appealing the verdict, notes that of the $500 million, Oculus will pay $200 million for breaking the NDA and $50 million for copyright infringement. Oculus and Luckey each have to pay $50 million for false designation, and Brendan Iribe, a cofounder of Oculus VR and now its CEO, has to pay $150 million for the same.

While the jury agreed that Facebook was not in possession of proprietary tech, it did agree with ZeniMax lawyers that Luckey, now 24, had violated the terms of a non-disclosure agreement he had signed with ZeniMax while he was developing the groundbreaking goggle.

Back in 2012, VR whiz John Carmack, who worked for iD Software, a game-maker that is part of ZeniMax, began helping then-student Palmer with his goggle project. That technical assistance eventually required Luckey to sign the NDA.

Not long after, Oculus Rift was an instant hit on Kickstarter, raising $2.4 million and confirming its commercial potential. Carmack eventually went to work for Luckey.

The defendants in this trial said that what ultimately became Oculus Rift did not contain ZeniMax code or IP; instead, the plaintiffs maintained that the NDA was violated and ZeniMax was therefore due remuneration from the mammoth sale.

The verdict is a blow to Luckey, who had gone from an outspoken poster boy for youthful tech innovation to a virtual recluse.

Last September, The Daily Beast reported that Lucky had donations    $10000 nimbale amarican  a conservative non-profit with a mission to develop memes to attack Hillary Clinton.

Facebook recently announced that former Google executive Hoga bara  would take over its virtual reality strategy. Zuckerberg has repeatedly said that "virtual and augmented reality will be the next major computing platform."
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