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Facebook has been sentenced to a 500 million dollar (460 million euro) fine after it lost a case about virtual reality headset Oculus Rift‘s technology, allegedly stolen from ZeniMax.
Facebook will appeal
Essentially, the case is between Oculus and ZeniMax, but seeing how Facebook acquired Oculus for 2 billion dollars a while back, it is now the one in court. ZeniMax says the Oculus Rift technology is actually its own technology and that Oculus had illegally obtained that technology.
Everything revolves around John Carmack, who worked for both ZeniMax and Oculus in 2013, but by the end of the year, he was a full-time Oculus employee. Zenimax claims he unlawfully took its technology with him when he joined Oculus and that his new employer lacked the technology or expertise to actually develop its virtual reality goggles, instead using ZeniMax technology for its prototype.
A jury has now sided with ZeniMax and fined Facebook 500 million dollars, but the social media site will appeal that decision. Despite winning the lawsuit (in which it originally demanded 2 billion dollars), ZeniMax is also looking whether it can takes things one step further. It is currently investigating whether it can block Oculus’ sale to Facebook entirely.
