Zenimax Vs. Oculus Lawsuit to Proceed

[HKZeroFive]

Last year it was revealed that Zenimax would be launching a lawsuit at Oculus VR, which had recently been acquired by Facebook at the time. The lawsuit seemed to be based around the accusation that Oculus stole trade secrets from Zenimax. As you would imagine, Oculus immediately appealed to have the lawsuit dismissed.

However, things did not go in favour of Oculus as a judge this month decided that the lawsuit should not be dismissed. According to the lawsuit, the Oculus Rift is being built using trade secrets that Oculus founder, Palmer Luckey, along with several former Zenimax employees should not have.

According to Zenimax, Oculus is now benefiting from the company’s own investments in to research. Zenimax initially asked for a 2 percent equity stake in Oculus VR in exchange for use of technology developed by employees on Zenimax’s payroll. However, Oculus apparently began poaching Zenimax employees instead. It is worth pointing out that this all kicked off when John Carmack left id Software for Oculus.

The three counts that Oculus was hoping to have dismissed included the misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of NDA and unjust enrichment. Unfortunately the company could not make decent enough arguments as to why these counts should be dismissed. The preliminary trial is now set to take place on the 1st of August 2016.

Sounds like Oculus has been very shady in their practices, it's understandable to see why Zenimax is seeking a lawsuit. But, we don't have all aspects of each sides' story so it's still too early to say who is in the wrong. Zuckerberg probably wasn't expecting this.

Sauce: http://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/the-zenimax-vs-oculus-lawsuit-is-still-going-ahead/

[Arty]

#google cardboard. 

 

Shame hopefully HTC/Steam will pick up its paces.

[Hunched]

ZeniMax isn't even making their own VR what the fuck do they care!

[TheSLSAMG]

ZeniMax isn't even making their own VR what the fuck do they care!

VR is part hardware and part software. ZeniMax own ID, Bethesda and others. Guess what Oculus probably stole? That's right, software that ZeniMax's children companies created and Oculus have no right having!

[Conduit]

VR is part hardware and part software. ZeniMax own ID, Bethesda and others. Guess what Oculus probably stole? That's right, software that ZeniMax's children companies created and Oculus have no right having!

The thing is the case isn't that simple, Zenimax has presented no evidense that even a single line of code in the Rift SDK is theres. Instead Zenimax's entire case revolves around the fact that John Carmack was helping Palmer Luckey with the Rift as a personal side project, Zenimax is claiming they own any and all code written/co-written/or consulted on by Carmack or any other Zenimax employee, even if said code writing/consulting was done on the employee's personal time.

In others words, the entire suit is purely dick move by Zenimax.

[Vanderburg]

The thing is the case isn't that simple, Zenimax has presented no evidense that even a single line of code in the Rift SDK is theres. Instead Zenimax's entire case revolves around the fact that John Carmack was helping Palmer Luckey with the Rift as a personal side project, Zenimax is claiming they own any and all code written/co-written/or consulted on by Carmack or any other Zenimax employee, even if said code writing/consulting was done on the employee's personal time.

In others words, the entire suit is purely dick move by Zenimax.

 

If what they say is true (And I don't have any bias one way or the other, having heard no evidence either way), what's wrong with their suit? Why would 2% be unreasonable, if it's uses stuff they paid for -And if it was developed by people on their payroll, and they have a contract saying what they develop is owned by the company (Something very common), they did pay for it-, why should they give it away for free? Because it's not cool?

[Anthony10]

August 2016

[mr moose]

The thing is the case isn't that simple, Zenimax has presented no evidense that even a single line of code in the Rift SDK is theres. Instead Zenimax's entire case revolves around the fact that John Carmack was helping Palmer Luckey with the Rift as a personal side project, Zenimax is claiming they own any and all code written/co-written/or consulted on by Carmack or any other Zenimax employee, even if said code writing/consulting was done on the employee's personal time.

In others words, the entire suit is purely dick move by Zenimax.

 

 

When there is a legal challenge going through the courts (especially corporate legal action) neither side will publicly release nor will the courts state any evidence for or against.  This is for presentation to the court only as making it publicly available has the potential to bias the case.  

 

Ergo we mere consumers will not have access to enough information to make claims like that.    We can only speculate.

[cesrai]

!@TheSLSAMG @mr moose

What's your personal opinion on this case ?

---

Frankly I don't know what to think, so yeah we have to wait.

[Umair]

VR is part hardware and part software. ZeniMax own ID, Bethesda and others. Guess what Oculus probably stole? That's right, software that ZeniMax's children companies created and Oculus have no right having!

Allegedly.  The word you're missing is allegedly.

[mr moose]

!@TheSLSAMG @mr moose

What's your personal opinion on this case ?

---

Frankly I don't know what to think, so yeah we have to wait.

 

I find it difficult to have/express an opinion when there is evidence lacking.

 

Suffice to say;  what the article is presenting is not that uncommon.  Did employees actually break NDA and take trade secrets with them? This has been tried in the courts before and they usually find in favour of the company due a thing called "in the course of employment".

 

So essentially I think all Zenimax have to do is prove their IP is in the occulus and they have the case.  If they can't prove that it might be a long drawn out case.