ZeniMax has released a statement today making some additions to its earlier claims of Oculus stealing from it to create the first consumer Rift headset. The statements build upon the premises of ZeniMax’s previous claims and allege Oculus of theft of technology, and also blame it for destruction of evidence.
Facebook acquired Oculus for 2 billion dollars, and ZeniMax is seeking an amount in the same neighborhood in damages. The release of products like Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR were doing good for the VR industry, and now this case has brought some more twists to the plot.
ZeniMax states in a statement;
With the start of the trial of our case in Federal District Court in Dallas against Defendants Facebook, Oculus and its management, ZeniMax and id Software welcome the opportunity to present substantial evidence of the Defendants’ misappropriation of our Virtual Reality intellectual property.
The statement also goes on to blame Oculus of outright theft and additionally, of destruction of evidence.
That evidence includes the theft of trade secrets and highly confidential information, including computer code. ZeniMax will also present evidence of the Defendants’ intentional destruction of evidence to cover up their wrongdoing. ZeniMax and id Software are the visionary developers of breakthrough VR technology, and look forward to the vindication of our claims.
John Carmack, who is the chief technology officer for Oculus, was then the chief executive at id Software. The lawsuit filed in 2014 against Oculus and its founder Palmer Luckey, alleges that Carmack took the ZeniMax documents along with him to Oculus.
The claims also say that the recent breakthroughs in the VR technology, brought and propagated by Oculus, are a result of those stolen documents.
The complaint reads;:
Oculus used ZeniMax’s hardware and software technology to create a software development kit for the Rift and to develop, modify, and tune the Rift hardware. Luckey did not have the expertise or knowledge to create a viable SDK for the Rift.
Meanwhile, Facebook’s VR subsidary has continued to deny the story, calling the claims as totally one-sided. The company has refuted all of the arguments and is standing firm upon meeting ZeniMax in the court — rather than reaching an out of court settlement, as often happens in such situations.
Meanwhile, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify in court on January 17. Luckey will also testify latter this week. It will be interesting to see how the case turn out. If Oculus is able to convince the court of its innocence, it will go off free and could even sue ZeniMax in return. However, if the ruling happens in Zenimax’s favor, well, the company could lose billions of dollars — Rift after all, was a groundbreaking device.
