Oculus, a subsidiary of Facebook company, will have to pay $ 500 million in damages in a lawsuit against Zenimax. Earlier, video game company Zenimax filed a lawsuit alleging that Oricus, a virtual reality (VR) company, had unauthorized use of its technology.
A federal court in Dallas, Texas, on Friday (January 1) ordered Facebook to reimburse Zenimax for damaging the intellectual property rights, damaging $ 500 million.
The court recognized Ouclus' liability for copyright infringement, breach of confidentiality obligations, and trademark abuse in connection with Zenimax's allegations.
Sandy Sander, chief operating officer at Facebook, said in an interview with the US CNB, "I am disappointed with some of the rulings. I am considering appealing." But the ruling does not have much impact on Facebook's financial standing, he added.
Zenimax argued that the co-founder of Oculus had commercially abused Zenimax's computer code and trade secret to develop the VR headset "Oculus Lift".
Zenimax pointed out that the Oculus Lift was 'primitive' until Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer John Carmack Oculus joined the development with knowledge gained from working at Zenimax.
Oculus said he would appeal. "The key to this case was whether Oculus stole Zenimax's trade secrets, and the jury was on our side," said Ouclus. "We are completely disappointed with some aspects of the ruling, but we are not frustrated." Said in an interview with CNBC.
Facebook bought Oculus for $ 2 billion in 2014. Last month, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook said he did not know about Intellectual Property disputes between Oculus and Zenimax in a court appearance.