The virtual reality ecosystem is being faced with a real-world assault by ZeniMax. After the company has successfully managed to bag a $500 million verdict against Facebook-owned VR venture Oculus earlier this year, it is now gunning for leading Korean giant — Samsung.
According to fresh reports, ZeniMax has filed a complaint alleging that Samsung’s Gear VR knowingly used Oculus’ VR technology to build its mobile headset. They did so even though they were aware of the fact that Oculus employed VR technology developed by the popular game maker and later misappropriated by Oculus CTO John Carmack. It has filed a complaint against the Korean giant with the Texas court, based on its previous verdict against Oculus, with a demand for a jury trial.
In the complaint, ZeniMax alleges that their former employee, John Carmack, who later moved on to join Oculus VR, was one of the important driving forces behind the development of Gear VR. Oculus, on the other hand, is faced with another infringement lawsuit.
Though the affordable mobile VR headset was marketed by Samsung, it was touted as being ‘Powered by Oculus’ and made use of its technology — which it again alleges the Korean giant was aware of being ZeniMax’s intellectual property. Carmack is said to be closely involved with this VR headset project, where he also developed heavy software optimizations for seamless mobile usage. In ZeniMax’s complaint document, it reads:
[This lawsuit is] based upon ZeniMax’s intellectual property and includes information obtained by Samsung from Oculus, Luckey, and Carmack in violation of the NDA, ZeniMax’s copyrights, and Carmack’s employment agreement.
ZeniMax continues to assert that Samsung should have been well aware of who the developer of the underlying VR technology was, especially due to the public nature of the Oculus lawsuit. This is the basis of their complaint which states that Samsung acted it was unaware of the ongoing procedures — started when the Gear VR headset was only being conceived by the Korean giant.
Thus, it has decided to allege Samsung of copyright infringement for using their VR tech in the headset, coupled with trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition, and unjust enrichment. But in the complaint, ZeniMax goes on to mention,
Samsung continued to develop the Gear VR with full knowledge of ZeniMax’s allegations and without obtaining any right or permission from ZeniMax to use any of its copyrights or other confidential information.
With regards to the lawsuit, ZeniMax is ultimately looking towards just one benefit from this hubbub– capital gains. The company, who’s known for developing popular games like Doom, Quake, and Fallout, is hungry for money and seeks damages from Samsung. It is also planning to score a chunk of profits from the sale of infringed technology and use of trade secrets, coupled with injunctive relief and punitive damages to fully compensate for their losses. It continues to mention,
Samsung stands to realize substantial value as a result of its use of ZeniMax’s misappropriated intellectual property and information obtained by Samsung from Oculus, Luckey, and Carmack in violation of the NDA and Carmack’s employment agreement.
