A jury in Dallas, Texas has awarded $500 million to games publisher ZeniMax Media after a lengthy court battle with Oculus Rift, a VR technology company that was purchased by Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion.
The case centred on sensitive technology and schematics that was, according to ZeniMax, illegally misappropriated by Oculus Rift. Although the jury found that Oculus Rift did not steal trade secrets from Zenimax, they nevertheless awarded half a billion dollars to Zenimax.
The trial jury found that Palmer Luckey, one of the founders of Oculus Rift, broke a non-disclosure agreement he signed and that Oculus Rift is guilty of alse designation regarding misuse of certain ZeniMax trademarks. ZeniMax had claimed during the trial that Palmer Luckey and well-known video game designer John Carmack stole trade secrets from ZeniMax, and more pointedly said that Luckey didn't invent the Oculus Rift.
There's been much speculation about the future of Oculus Rift, as analysts have been forecasting poor sales for the VR headset. As well as this, Zenimax is now reportedly planning to file an injunction to stop the sale of Oculus Rift headsets in light of the judgement in their favour.
Via Kotaku
