Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Facebook loses $500m VR headset battle

03/02/2017

--

Facebook loses $500m VR headset battle --

Fri, 03 Feb 2017 11:15

--

The virtual reality headset maker that Facebook bought in 2014 for US$2bn used stolen computer code, a jury said in awarding $500m to ZeniMax Media.

The case was over the Oculus Rift, the device that has put the social media giant at the forefront of the VR boom.

The 1 February verdict in a Texas federal court is a rebuke to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who isn t a defendant but who told jurors in his first-ever courtroom testimony that it was important for him to be there because the claims by ZeniMax were false. An Oculus spokeswoman said the company will appeal.

ZeniMax claimed it was responsible for key breakthroughs in the development of software and hardware for the headset, only to be betrayed when one of its star employees joined with two other entrepreneurs and purloined ZeniMax s intellectual property for their own startup, Oculus VR.

Facebook s acquisition of Oculus gave it a head start against Microsoft, Sony, Google and others competing for a piece of the VR market that s forecast to exceed $84bn in sales in 2020. Facebook began shipping the ski-goggle-like Rift for $599 in March.

The case centred on the defection of videogame programmer John Carmack from ZeniMax, where he had designed blockbuster games Doom and Quake, to Oculus, where he was named chief technology officer in 2013. He acknowledged in testimony that he took with him e-mail records including computer code related to VR.

While the jury rejected trade-secret theft claims, it ordered Oculus to pay $200m for violating a nondisclosure agreement, $50m for copyright infringement and $50m for improper use of ZeniMax s trademarks.

Jurors also hit Oculus s co-founders, Brendan Iribe and Palmer Luckey, with $150m and $50m in damages, respectively, for the trademark misuse. The jury found that Carmack took property belonging to ZeniMax but didn t order him to pay damages.

The heart of this case was about whether Oculus stole ZeniMax s trade secrets, and the jury found decisively in our favour, Oculus spokeswoman Tera Randall said in a statement. We re obviously disappointed by a few other aspects of today s verdict, but we are undeterred. Oculus products are built with Oculus technology.

ZeniMax said in a statement that while it regrets having to go to litigate to vindicate its rights, it was necessary to take a stand against companies that engage in illegal activity in their desire to get control of new, valuable technology.

ZeniMax s lawyer, Tony Sammi, argued at trial that Oculus committed a heist, covered it up by destroying evidence and made off with a lot of money when it was bought out by Facebook. He told the jury Oculus went from zero to hero using Carmack s innovations at ZeniMax to improve on the crude prototype for the Rift designed by Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey.

If they could make it, why d they take it? Sammi asked the nine-member jury in his closing argument.

Zuckerberg testified for five hours during the three-week trial, denying ZeniMax s allegations and saying it s common for companies to come out of the woodwork and make such claims following an acquisition.

Facebook s lawyer, Beth Wilkinson, underscored that point in her closing argument, saying ZeniMax ceased all work on VR in early 2013 and didn t accuse Oculus of wrongdoing until Facebook announced the takeover in March 2014.

They re jealous. They re angry, Wilkinson told jurors. They re embarrassed because they had the opportunity to get in on this.

Zuckerberg had a vision and followed through on it, she said. He saw what these guys could do in the future and invested.

ZeniMax had sought $2bn from Facebook and Oculus to compensate for losses and unspecified punitive damages

(c) 2017 Bloomberg LP

Source: Tech Central

Related Articles



-- --

-- --

-- Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. comments powered by Disqus
LINK: http://www.screenafrica.com/page/news/animation/1661673-Facebook-loses...
See more stories from screenafrica

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

23/08/2026

Parish Audio introduce Parametric Compressor

Offers up to 10 bands of compression Parish Audio's latest release allows users to place individual compressors anywhere in the frequency range, but tak...

22/08/2026

Macon Blair on Filmmaking and the Long Road to Idiots

O'Shea Jackson Jr., Dave Franco, and Mason Thames appear in Idiots by Macon Blair, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of ...

22/08/2026

Crafting the Contenders: Adam Bricker, ASC on bringing Hacks home

By the time Hacks reached its fifth and final season, Adam Bricker ASC had spent six years shaping one of television's most distinctive visual identities. T...

22/08/2026

World Cup Drives TVP to Retain Top Spot in July as Live Sport Buoys Polish Viewership

Polsat reclaims second place, ByteDance climbs to eighth, and live football miti...

22/08/2026

DirecTV Offers New Customers a Year of Free Netflix with Ads

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/08/2026

Judge Sets Early October Hearing for ABC Lawsuit Against FCC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/08/2026

ORF Taps Net Insight for Full IP Upgrade

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/08/2026

Breezeline Teams Up with DirecTV to Launch New Streaming Bundle

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/08/2026

Avid brings agentic media production to IBC2026

Avid brings agentic media production to IBC2026 Brie Clayton August 21, 2026 0 Comments After launching Avid Content Core at NAB 2026, Avid expands it...

22/08/2026

Making of Lord of the Flies Shot with Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro

Making of Lord of the Flies Shot with Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro Brie Clayton August 21, 2026 0 Comments Filmmaker Lisa Marie Russo shoots on the bea...

22/08/2026

Homecoming Artist Spotlight: Dogs In A Pile

Homecoming Artist Spotlight: Dogs In A Pile The rising jam band talks about where it all started on the Berklee campus ahead of their Homecoming performance o...

22/08/2026

Berklee Alumna Lexi Vollero MA '22 Receives Fulbright Award to Brazil

Berklee Alumna Lexi Vollero MA '22 Receives Fulbright Award to Brazil Vollero, a Berklee NYC graduate, has been selected for a Fulbright Open Research Awa...

21/08/2026

FOX Sports Rolls Out Its Most Ambitious Live Motorsports Production' Ever at IndyCar Freedom 250 GP in DC

A massive deployment of specialty cameras, graphics, and AR will showcase the na...

21/08/2026

Creative Studio Zookeeper Embraces Pinball Motif for West Coast Conference PSA

The West Coast Conference unveiled its new 30-second public service announcement, the latest expression of the Conference's We Rise in the West brand iden...

21/08/2026

ESPN Soft-Launches a New NFL Graphics Package, Scorebug During Thursday Night's Raiders-Texans Preseason Game

New look will serve as the foundation for ESPN's upcoming NFL season and Sup...

21/08/2026

ESPN to Debut Little League Alumni Alt-Cast for 2026 MLB Little League Classic

ESPN will air the ninth annual MLB Little League Classic presented by New York Life on Sunday, August 23, at 7 p.m. ET from Historic Bowman Field in Williamspor...

21/08/2026

His Story Becomes Part of Football History': Dean Grossman Honors His Father Sandy With Pete Rozelle Award Speech

In an emotional acceptance speech in Canton, Grossman celebrated the pioneering ...

21/08/2026

Rapid Flow release miniGRID

Hardware-style timing shifts for software instruments Following on from the release of Omniclock, Rapid Flow have launched a new sequencer plug-in that can ...

21/08/2026

Love Synthesizers announce First Love pre-orders

Highly anticipated synthesizer ships in October 2026 Iceland-based Love Synthesizers have announced that their highly anticipated synthesizer is now availab...

21/08/2026

The Forsytes' Adds Gregg Sulkin & Gabriel Antunes As PBS Masterpiece Series Starts Filming Season 3

Masterpiece PBS The Forsytes has expanded its cast as its begins production in ...

21/08/2026

BBC reveals haunting first look and further casting for The Witch Farm

The BBC has unveiled first-look pictures from The Witch Farm, a new ghost story and mystery set in the Welsh countryside, coming soon to BBC iPlayer and BBC One...

21/08/2026

A first look at Edward Bluemel as Hercule Poirot.

The BBC and BritBox have revealed the first look of Edward Bluemel as Hercule Poirot in the forthcoming six-part series Hercule from Mammoth Screen and Agatha C...

21/08/2026

Inside Euphoria's Editorial Heart: Aaron I. Butler, ACE on craft, collaboration and controlled madness

Our priority was making the best, most powerful, most meaningful story possible,...

21/08/2026

Clear-Com Appoints Venuetech as its Main Partner for the Middle East

eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......

21/08/2026

Techex Names Stuart Almond as Chief Revenue Officer

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

Avid Brings Agentic Media Production to IBC2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

Avid brings agentic media production to IBC2026

Avid will unveil how it is transforming production to help media organizations unite content, agentic workflows, and business insights at IBC2026 (RAI Amsterda...

21/08/2026

Grass Valley Connects SDI IP and Software as One Unified...

New routing, modular processing, orchestration and monitoring capabilities bridge dedicated hardware and software-based processing as part of the Dynamic Media ...

21/08/2026

Indiana Pacers Selects DAZN As Exclusive Streaming Partner

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

Chyron To Showcase Newsroom Advancements At IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

Broadpeak to Launch Multiview as a Service at IBC2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

University of Maryland Deploys Sony FX30 Cameras

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

Study: FAST Sports Programming Surges

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

Spectrum SportsNet LA Launches in Former Cox Markets

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

ESPN Airs Its Most-Watched WNBA Game

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

Wisycom Wireless and DPA Microphones Support Pope Leo XIV...

When hundreds of thousands of people gather to hear a single voice, there is no room for compromise. Every word must be delivered clearly, every wireless transm...

21/08/2026

Telestream and ScorePlay Turn Live Sports into Immediate...

Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, today announced a strategic partnership with ScorePlay, the AI-powered media infrastructure that spo...

21/08/2026

NUGEN Audio Launches New Post and Producer Subscription P...

NUGEN Audio announces the launch of its new Post Plan and Producer Plan, two flexible subscription offerings designed to give audio professionals short term acc...

21/08/2026

Join the Screen Currency 2026 Ask Me Anything (AMA) Online

Join the Screen Currency 2026 Ask Me Anything (AMA) Online 20 August 2026 (L-R): Adrian Coates, Grainne Brunsdon, Deirdre Brennan, Rachael Perkins Got questio...

21/08/2026

** MEDIA ALERT ** VIZ Media Takes Over Anime NYC with BLEACH, BLACK TORCH, MAO and More

** MEDIA ALERT ** VIZ Media Takes Over Anime NYC with BLEACH, BLACK TORCH, M...

21/08/2026

Take five with Sophie

Tell us a little bit about your job I'm a Marketing Manager and work across a mix of clients and projects. No two days are ever quite the same, which defini...

21/08/2026

Irish Lottery heist documentary to air on RT

Beat The Lotto dives into the plot behind the 1980s National Lottery scandal 24 August 2026 at 9:35pm on RT One and RT Player Beat The Lotto is the story o...

21/08/2026

The Late Late Toy Show kicks off search for this year's stars

The countdown to the most wonderful night of the year has officially begun! Host Patrick Kielty is gearing up for another unforgettable Late Late Toy Show nig...

21/08/2026

New children's series Bellie and Whizz at Big School set to air on RT KIDSjr & RT Player from Monday, 24th August

Meet puppet duo Bellie and Whizz, who are about to explore all the big feelings ...

20/08/2026

NEP's Summer of Soccer Didn't End at World Cup: 1,100+ Domestic Productions Follow the Final

From host-broadcaster and rightsholder support in June and July to MLS, NWSL, US...

20/08/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 27: San Jose Sharks' Emily Garner - Production Tales From the Shark Tank

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: Veritone To Showcase Enterprise AI and Media Supply Chain Automation

At IBC this year, Veritone (14.A56) is bringing two connected themes to the booth: architectural independence in enterprise AI, and the automation of the media ...