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 \u00ab\u00a0literally transformed\u00a0\u00bb it into a workable device, according to court documents.
Luckey went on to fund Oculus Rift with $2.5 million raised via crowd-funding website later in 2012. ZeniMax claims that Luckey violated a non-disclosure agreement in the process. Luckey sold out to Facebook less than two years later.
Zuckerberg will be required to take the stand as ZeniMax claims that he \u00ab\u00a0knew or had reason to know\u00a0\u00bb that Oculus didn’t necessarily own all of the intellectual property behind its headset and associated technology.
However, while Luckey and Zuckerberg have understandably maintained their innocence, they have also been supported by Carmack himself.
In a May 2014 tweet, he claimed: \u00a0\u00bb No work I have ever done has been patented. ZeniMax owns the code that I wrote, but they don’t own VR. \u00a0\u00bb
The lawsuit kicked off last week in Dallas, Texas. ZeniMax Media opened the trial by accusing Oculus of \u00ab\u00a0misappropriating ZeniMax trade secrets relating to virtual reality technology\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n