Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear in court today to defend his company against claims that it’s using virtual reality tech stolen from Zenimax Media. The case centers around John Carmack, who formerly worked for Zenimax. When he left for Oculus, it’s alleged he took intellectual property with him.
Zenimax is suing Facebook for $2 billion with the claim being that Oculus, and by extension Facebook, are benefiting massively from its innovation.
It’s believed Zuckerberg will argue Oculus’ work is what turned VR into something valuable, not Zenimax’s.
Oculus and its founders have invested a wealth of time and money in VR because we believe it can fundamentally transform the way people interact and communicate. We’re disappointed that another company is using wasteful litigation to attempt to take credit for technology that it did not have the vision, expertise, or patience to build. – Oculus
Tony Sammi, Zenimax’s lawyer, called Carmack’s alleged activity “one of the biggest technology heists ever.” Carmack is alleged to have “secretly and illegally copied thousands of documents.”
Carmack’s team has defended his actions. They say he was allowed to work with other companies so long as they weren’t competing with Zenimax. And the documents he “stole” actually pertained to Carmack’s work with Palmer Lucky and Oculus.
