ZeniMax asks jury for $4 billion between damages and compensation in Oculus VR case
The jury is expected to reach a verdict on Monday, January 30.
Attorneys on both sides of the ZeniMax and Oculus trial shared closing arguments yesterday following weeks of heated testimonies and proceedings.
As its final salvo, ZeniMax's attorneys asked the jury to award the company $2 billion in punitive damages and another $2 billion in compensation (via Gamasutra).
"We’re here because the defendants stole something very valuable," ZeniMax attorney Anthony Sammi told the jury. Sammi spent the trial arguing ZeniMax's contention that Oculus illegally obtained key technology and materials that led to the creation of the company's Rift VR headset.
Oculus' attorney Beth Wilkinson countered by accusing ZeniMax of filing its lawsuit out of anger and embarrassment rather than hard evidence. According to Oculus, company founder Palmer Luckey conceived the idea for the product, which was then developed by engineers.
Key personnel from both entities including Mark Zuckerberg, John Carmack, Palmer Luckey, and Oculus CEO Brandon Iribe provided testimony during the trial.
The jury is expected to reconvene and deliver a verdict this Monday, January 30.
-
Shacknews
replyDavid Craddock posted a new article, ZeniMax asks jury for $4 billion between damages and compensation in Oculus VR case
-
-
-
Fuck ZeniMax so hard. Hope they walk with nothing.
-
-
ALL THE DESK FANS AND TYPEWRITERS
-
Don't forget clipboards, truckloads of clipboards
-
-
And an encumbrance of 31/30.
-
-
this is a really interesting case but I need more details. I wish I can read the whole transcript. Very curious to see how much zenimax gets if anything
-
[deleted]
-
after reading all I can find on the internet about this case, I think it'll be tough for zenimax to get much
the main things Oculus is guilty of is Carmack helping them while still employed at zenimax, and Carmack stealing code when he quit zenimax.
The problem is both of those acts have to be proven as damaging to zenimax. For the first act, Carmack says Oculus wouldve happened without his guidance, and the second act he says it was just emails and no code was used in Oculus. Carmack definitely guilty of the acts themselves but it has to show Oculus gained 4 billion from it.
I'm a big believer in innocent until proven guilty, I do think Carmack is guilty of stuff, but if I was on the jury Id want hard evidence and not accusations.
-
The only thing John Carmack is guilty of is being John Carmack. Mmmmm.
-
[deleted]
-
-
-
The whole thing irritates me. IMO Zenimax are just kicking themselves in the ass for not getting on the train. So in response they trying to claim his research/knowledge as their own.
http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/e3-2012-john-carmack-interview/2300-6164/
-
-
-
-
Such a great audiobook. Wil Wheaton did a great job of narrating. Mmmmm.
-
Such a great audiobook. Wil Wheaton did a great job of narrating. Mmmmm.
-
-
-
-
thats a good point
-
-
-
I think its a common practice in some parts of game dev... I know animators will often take source files they worked on - so they can put together a showreel.
It's never something that you're technically allowed to do, but for animators - taking source files (or at the very least, being allowed to send renders home) is common.
Never really heard of it for code though...-
If you look at history, Carmack in particular seems like a scorched earth kind of sociopath and there was always behind the scene drama.
They fucked over each other in their shares of the company when they sold for example leading to a expensive lawsuit. If you go back far enough you will see how they had Romero doing tons of work on quake 1 and never getting a single penny for it. He literally didn't get paid for making quake, one of the games his name is associated with forever, staring with coding the compression tools that install the game (not to mention the best mp maps or the whole shareware episode).
So yeah aside from doing the standard practice thing I wouldn't be surprised if he raided them nor only for talent but code. -
Sure, and lots of people in the corporate world conveniently find copies of spreadsheets they made at their old jobs on thumb drives, too, but we've been through enough years of IP litigation now that everyone knows it can get you in big trouble. Just doesn't seem like a mistake a really smart guy like Carmack would make.
-
-
-
-
Couldn't facebook just buy Zenimax and end all this?
-
-
-
By about 1.5 billion, going by Wikipedia numbers.
-
-
-
-
-
[deleted]
-
-
[deleted]
-
-
-
Yeah this is only a first of many, many cases lined up that are gonna be a lot more damaging to Oculus/Facebook but especially Palmer.
-
Why would it be damaging to Palmer? Just wondering... I thought he was just a potential witness.
-
Because he's signed NDAs with several of those companies.
-
-
-
-
