The lawsuit between ZeniMax and Facebook-owned Oculus VR is over, but this adventure just got even more serious. Earlier this month, Video game publisher Zenimax won a $500 million judgment against Facebook-owned Oculus virtual reality (VR) for illegal copying of computer code. On Thursday, ZeniMax made its request in papers filed in federal court in Dallas.
ZeniMax Wants To Block Games From Oculus Rift
ZeniMax requested the federal judge to block Facebook's Oculus Rift from using the code in its products. According to Business Insider, the said federal was the same that issued the verdict against Oculus and its founders, the Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe. The order is to limit the number of games available for purchase for the VR headset company.
Facebook paid a total of $3 billion for Oculus VR in 2014. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that the company plans to spend more billions of dollars on developing VR in the coming years. With this move of ZeniMax, it would be a hindrance to a product growth especially on which Facebook has made a huge bet for the future. The Facebook-owned company said in the past months that they are planning to appeal to the court regarding this matter and that "our commitment to the long-term success of VR remains the same."
Oculus Rift has already made the code disputed by the video game publisher available to companies that produce games, and it is embedded in several games available for use on the VR. Its availability also includes other VR products such as the Samsung's Gear VR, a smartphone-compatible device which is developed through a partnership with Oculus. In fact, Tony Sammi, a lawyer representing ZeniMax, call Facebook's acquisition of Oculus as one of the many huge "technology heists ever" during his opening remarks to the jury on January.
On Friday, a spokesperson said in an interview that Oculus still planned to file a motion appeal and terminate the verdict. "ZeniMax’s motion does not change the fact that the verdict was legally flawed and factually unwarranted. The spokesperson also said that the firm is looking forward to filing their own motion to set aside the jury’s decision and, "if necessary, filing an appeal that will allow us to put this litigation behind us."
What Will Happen If ZeniMax's Requests Are Granted?
According to PCWorld, if ZenimMax’s requests are granted, it could halt all the sales of the affected games available for the Samsung Gear VR. In addition to that, Oculus Rift VR headsets may also be affected in this situation. A California-based intellectual property lawyer which is not involved in the case, Mark Romeo, said that the potential disruption from a sanction if granted would put an incredible measure of pressure on Facebook to enter once more into another sort of settlement.
The demand of ZeniMaz is fairly broad. It that could spell trouble for Facebook Oculus VR as well as the Samsung Electronic's Gear. Admitting that this whole case appears to be over money, Oculus Rift could possibly settle this thing with just a licensing deal if the injunction is approved. However, that is just a speculation.
