Facebook subsidiaries Oculus VR is charged with $500 million for software infringement. The jury found the company to be liable for damage done by violation of non disclosure agreement with game developer ZeniMax.
The federal jury in Texas reached the verdict on Wednesday Feb. 1, as reported by TechCrunch. They found that Oculus VR and its founder Palmer Luckey has violated terms in the non disclosure agreement between the company and game developer ZeniMax. As a result of breaching the agreement, Oculus ZeniMax suffered a $500 million in damages for copyright and trademark infringement.
Jury also found Oculus to be guilty on false designation. However, jury found Oculus VR not gulity on charges of stealing ZeniMax trade secret to create company’s sole product, the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift.
From total of the half billion dollar charges, $200 million are paid for breaching of the NDA, Polygon reported. Other $50 million must be paid for copyright infringement, while its founder Luckey must pay $50 million dollar for false designation. The former CEO Brendan Iribe has to pay $150 million for the same charges as Luckey as well.
Facebook was free of the claims according to jury’s verdict. In the case, the Maryland-based game developer sought for $6 billion in damage claim for copyright infringement against Facebook and Oculus. Following the jury’s decision, Oculus spokeperson said that she was rather disappointed with the verdict.
"We're obviously disappointed by a few other aspects of today's verdict, but we are undeterred,” the spokeperson said in the written statement.
Although they lost the case, but both Oculus and Facebook are relieved because they have escaped from bigger damage. The bigger loss will surely end their virtual reality project which has been done for years. Moreover, Facebook has already recruit Hugo Barra to lead their virtual reality project in Facebook and Oculus earlier this month.
Watch the report on the billions of dollar lawsuit against Oculus and Facebook below:
