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Zenimax has been awarded $500m in a recently concluded legal battle with Oculus. Here’s a detailed breakdown of exactly which charges stuck, and which claims Oculus was found innocent of.

Alissa McAloon, Publisher

February 2, 2017

1 Min Read

The years-long legal battle between Zenimax and Oculus drew to a close yesterday, as the court ruled in Zenimax’s favor after two days of deliberations. As a result, Zenimax is owed a total of $500 million for a variety of charges against Oculus, CTO John Carmack, and co-founders Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe.

Now that the dust has had a chance to settle, a pair of legal experts sat down to analyze the jury's verdict and to explain the decisions behind each individual charge.

The full breakdown on Road to VR by Matt Hooper and Brian Sommer is very nearly required reading if you’re someone who wants to better understand the charges levied against Oculus in the lawsuit.

Both experts explain each charge in digestible language that reveals important information game developers could find beneficial about IP theft, copyright infringement, NDA violations, and more.

During the case, a jury was tasked with deciding if defendants, including Carmack, Luckey, Iribe, Oculus and Oculus’ parent company Facebook, were guilty of seven charges put forth by Zenimax. 

Those charges, as named by the Road to VR article, were Common Law Misappropriation of Trade Secrets, Copyright Infringement, Breach of Contract, Tortious Interference With Contract, Unfair Competition, Conversion, and Trademark Infringement and False Designation.

Ultimately, only three of the charges (Copyright Infringement, Breach of Contract, and Trademark Infringement and False Designation) stuck, resulting in the court ordering several of the individual defendants to pay out a combined $500 million to Zenimax.

Head over to Road to VR for the full breakdown of each of those charges, including explanations about both the jury’s decisions and the monetary value assigned to each.

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2017

About the Author(s)

Alissa McAloon

Publisher, GameDeveloper.com

As the Publisher of Game Developer, Alissa McAloon brings a decade of experience in the video game industry and media. When not working in the world of B2B game journalism, Alissa enjoys spending her time in the worlds of immersive sandbox games or dabbling in the occasional TTRPG.

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