Oculus Rift Officially Responds to ZeniMax Lawsuit

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Back in May, ZeniMax Media filed a lawsuit against Oculus VR and its founder, Palmer Luckey. The lawsuit accused Oculus of "unlawful exploitation of intellectual property." This property included trade secrets, copyrighted computer code, and "technical know-how" related to virtual reality technology. The company also alleged that Oculus received said intellectual property under a binding Non-Disclosure Agreement.

"All efforts by ZeniMax to resolve this matter amicably have been unsuccessful," ZeniMax announced last month. "Oculus has recently issued a public statement remarkably claiming that 'ZeniMax has never contributed IP or technology to Oculus.' Meanwhile, Luckey has held himself out to the public as the visionary developer of virtual reality technology, when in fact the key technology Luckey used to establish Oculus was developed by ZeniMax."

On Wednesday, Oculus VR fired back in a formal response filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas Dallas Division. The company claims that ZeniMax became interested thanks to Facebook's purchase of Oculus VR for $2 billion USD -- that the claims against Oculus weren't made until ZeniMax saw a "perceived chance for a quick payout."

"ZeniMax's Complaint falsely claims ownership in Oculus VR technology in a transparent attempt to take advantage of the Oculus VR sale to Facebook," Oculus writes in the response. "There is not a line of ZeniMax code or any of its technology in any Oculus VR product."

The response then describes how Luckey designed the Rift, presents a few photos of prototypes as evidence, and talks about the relationship between Luckey and John Carmack. As we already know, Carmack was a ZeniMax employee until he quit the company back in November 2013 to work full-time as Oculus' Chief Technical Officer.

"ZeniMax had a golden opportunity to make an early investment in Oculus VR and chose to pass," Oculus's response states. "The lawsuit is nothing more than ZeniMax seeking to correct for a massive missed opportunity through the assertion of meritless litigation."

To read the full response, head here.

MORE: Did Carmack Really "Steal" ZeniMax's Tech for Oculus Rift?

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7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Gam3r01
    Shots Fired.
    Reply
  • hahmed330
    To be fair to Zeni Max... They wanted Oculus to succeed at first, but more importantly they wanted close partnership... But after Facebook bought it chance became zero... VR requires an industry consortium for a standard.. Because Facebook bought it.. Obviously Google wouldn't work with Facebook neither would Sony (as they didn't)... VR would end up highly fragmented... Developers would be then less likely to develop new IPs on VR...
    Reply
  • someguynamedmatt
    Hah, that's great. Glad to hear somebody kicking back with something a little more decisive than the usual 'we apologize for any misunderstanding and want a peaceful resolution' crap that gets thrown between companies. I really do want to see Occulus succeed, both for their own sake (really looking forward to the DK2) and to keep pushing foward VR as a whole.
    Reply
  • Tony Casagrande
    Oculus' response is the legalese equivalency of a reality check accompanied by the middle finger. This guy approves.
    Reply
  • icemunk
    We're entering the age of VR, and now everybody and there dog wants in. It's the "I did it first!" type thing again. Sorry Zeni Max, but it's not always who does it first, it's who does it right. Remember Palm?
    Reply
  • Mac266
    My dreams come true! A Hardware argument!!
    Reply
  • f-14
    design schematics and code please other wise it's zeni max's. zeni max's people have been in the VR business since 2003 and rift is using alot of tech from those first set of glasses they used to create the gimmick of 3D back then.
    color stigmatism is not 3D by the way zeni/oculus it's a sight problem that will damage users eye sight. ask any optometrist/opthamologist.
    Reply