Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will testify in court in the intellectual property trial launched by Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax in May 2014, two months after Facebook acquired the company for $2bn.
If Facebook loses the lawsuit, it will not only render the $2bn that it spent buying Oculus practically worthless, but would also open up the company to pay ZeniMax damages of up to $2bn.
The lawuit centres around claims by ZeniMax that it, and not Oculus, developed the core intellectual property behind the Oculus Rift virtual reality device.
ZeniMax claims that a team led by John Carmack, the games industry legend behind Id Software, helped to turn Oculus founder Palmer Luckey’s device into a working virtual reality headset.
ZeniMax claims that while Luckey developed a prototype VR headset in 2012, it was the input of Carmack and other staff at ZeniMax that “literally transformed” it into a workable device, according to court documents.
