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ZeniMax Is Suing Samsung After Winning Its Case Against Oculus (cnn.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the next-on-the-list dept.

Games company ZeniMax successfully sued Facebook-owned Oculus for $500 million earlier this year, and now it has a new target in sight: Samsung. The company has filed a new lawsuit over Samsung's Gear VR headset, claiming that "Samsung knowingly profited from Oculus technology that was first developed at ZeniMax, then misappropriated by Oculus executive John Carmack," reports The Verge. From the report: Carmack, whose company id Software was acquired by ZeniMax in 2009, was one of the driving forces behind the Gear VR. While the headset was released by Samsung, it's described as "powered by Oculus," with heavy software optimizations developed by Carmack. But the lawsuit alleges that Carmack owed much of his success at Oculus to software he developed as part of a team at ZeniMax. Among other things, the Texas court filing claims that Carmack secretly brought Oculus (and former ZeniMax) employee Matt Hooper into id Software's offices to develop an "attack plan" for mobile VR, which Oculus would later take to Samsung. The Samsung Gear VR was also built on some of the same code as the Oculus Rift, which was the subject of ZeniMax's earlier lawsuit. ZeniMax's basic argument is that Samsung would have been aware of the lawsuit against Oculus, which was filed during the initial development of the Gear VR. But "Samsung continued to develop the Gear VR with full knowledge of ZeniMax's allegations and without obtaining any right or permission from ZeniMax to use any of its copyrights or other confidential information." The new lawsuit officially accuses Samsung of copyright infringement for using ZeniMax VR code in the Gear VR, as well as trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition, and unjust enrichment.

6 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. This is how VR dies by Vektuz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We'll see VR again when the patents expire, I guess.

    1. Re:This is how VR dies by Pseudonym · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's 3D printing all over again.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
  2. Huh... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So essentially, Carmack will never (or at least until certain patents run out) be able to work on VR again because anything he comes up with now builds on what he already knows, and he knows that stuff from developing what this Z-something now owns? Harsh.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    1. Re:Huh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "id Software was acquired by Z-something in 2009".... maybe he could have tried not selling his soul to the devil before he complained about the heat.

      you're all idiots.

  3. Next Suit: Carmacks Brain in a Jar by tomxor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Or something equivalent, zenimax claims are basically all "We own whatever comes out of Carmacks head"... why don't they just cut to the chase and file suit against Carmack requiring all creative thought to instantly be property of Zen-ownallyourthoughts-max.

  4. Weird by locater16 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm convinced the boardroom owners of Zenimax and whatever rabid lawyers they employ just get a hardon from lawsuits. The "victory" against Oculus was actually against Palmer and another Oculus employee personally for breaking NDA's, which they did. The charges against Carmack and for "stolen technology" were all declared as not guilty.

    So the "victory" provides them no legal backing nor precedent for this new suit, but they're doing it anyway because Zenimax is run by some crazed bullies that probably wank it to thoughts of bossing poor people around. Or they literally just hire hookers and then boss them around, I dunno.