Robert Altman, ZeniMax’s Chairman and CEO, said in a statement, “Technology is the foundation of our business and we consider the theft of our intellectual property to be a serious matter. We appreciate the jury’s finding against the defendants, and the award of half a billion dollars in damages for those serious violations.”
ZeniMax Media filed suit against Palmer Luckey and Oculus VR on the following 7 counts; these were listed on the court docket:
- Common Law Misappropriation of Trade Secrets
The big one: ZeniMax claims that its trade secrets revealed to Luckey under NDA and known to a handful of ex-ZeniMax employees now at Oculus have been used to build the Rift headset’s core technologies. - Copyright Infringement
Oculus and its team utilized ZeniMax’s “DOOM 3: BFG Edition” as a title to showcase the Rift to investors which ZeniMax claims was done without its permission. More salacious is the claim that some of the SDKs which Oculus VR distributed utilized ZeniMax code. - Breach of Contract
Here, ZeniMax claims that Luckey violated the terms of a non-disclosure agreement which he signed on May 24, 2012. - Unfair Competition
Basically, by using ZeniMax’s trade secrets to build the Rift, the company claims Oculus has taken away their ability to release a VR product based on their own unique technologies. - Unjust Enrichment
ZeniMax suggests here that Oculus VR and its employees have unjustly profited off ZeniMax technologies to the tune of billions of dollars. - Trademark Infringement
Again, ZeniMax calls out Oculus VR for using owned trademarks like that of “DOOM 3: BFG Edition” without the company’s permission, a claim Oculus has denied is accurate. - False Designation
Finally, ZeniMax claims that Oculus VR purposefully misled the public into thinking that their headset was endorsed by ZeniMax or its employees or was in some way affiliated with the company or its products.
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