A jury in Dallas, Texas ruled in favor of ZeniMax media, awarding the media company $500 million in damages. The jury found Palmer Luckey, and Oculus VR by extension, guilty of violating the terms a non-disclosure agreement. The jury also ruled Oculus guilty of false designation and copyright infringement.
Notably absent from the charges of guilt was the claim that Oculus stole trade secrets in order to design the Rift headset.
Oculus must pay $200 million for the violation of a non-disclosure agreement, $50 million for false designation, and $50 million for copyright infringement according to TechCrunch. Luckey must pay $50 million himself, while former Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe must pay $150 million.
According to TechCrunch, Facebook said ZeniMax actually sought $6 billion in damages, rather than the $4 billion as previously reported. Facebook acquired the virtual reality startup for $3 million in March 2014
“The heart of this case was about whether Oculus stole ZeniMax’s trade secrets, and the jury found decisively in our favor,” Facebook said in a statement to TechCrunch, “We’re obviously disappointed by a few other aspects of today’s verdict, but we are undeterred. Oculus products are built with Oculus technology.”
“Our commitment to the long-term success of VR remains the same, and the entire team will continue the work they’ve done since day one – developing VR technology that will transform the way people interact and communicate,” continued Facebook, ” We look forward to filing our appeal and eventually putting this litigation behind us.”
ZeniMax originally filed suit against Luckey and Oculus on 7 counts; common law misappropriation of trade secrets, copyright infringement, breach of contract, unfair competition, unjust enrichment, trademark infringement, and false designation. The media company used these counts to build the claim that their technology was instrumental to the success of Oculus VR, and that they should have been compensated accordingly.
“Technology is the foundation of our business and we consider the theft of our intellectual property to be a serious matter,” said ZeniMax Chairman and CEO Robert Altman, “We appreciate the jury’s finding against the defendants, and the award of half a billion dollars in damages for those serious violations.”
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