Oculus must pay half a billion dollars to ZeniMax Media over a broken non-disclosure agreement and other infringements, a Texas jury ruled today. That’s a hefty fine, but the worst may be yet to come if ZeniMax seeks to temporarily halt Rift sales – and succeeds.
ZeniMax, a major game publisher, brought the lawsuit against the Facebook-owned Oculus alleging its trade secrets were stolen and used to develop the well-known Rift VR headset.
While the jury did not find Oculus stole ZeniMax’s trade secrets, it awarded $500 million (about £385m, AU$660m) because of the violated NDA as well as copyright and trademark infringement, reports Polygon .
Oculus Rift inventor Palmer Luckey (who broke the NDA), Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe and Oculus are all on the hook to pay part of the damages. ZeniMax had sought $4 billion in total.
In a statement sent to TechRadar, an Oculus spokesperson reiterated the company’s position that Oculus products are built with its own technology, and added an appeal is coming.
“The heart of this case was about whether Oculus stole ZeniMax’s trade secrets, and the jury found decisively in our favor,” the spokesperson said. “We’re obviously disappointed by a few other aspects of today’s verdict, but we are undeterred.
