Results
In the end, the court concluded that Oculus must pay ZeniMax $200 million for the breaking of the NDA, $50 million for copyright infringement, and $50 million for false designation. Luckey has to pay the same fine for false designation, while Iribe has to pay $150 million for the same fines as stated above.
Oculus was cleared of stealing trade secrets, which means no one such as Carmack or any other former employee was found to have stolen information they had worked on previously at id Software. Where Oculus is getting hit hardest is the copyright infringement, as there is no denying that Doom 3: BFG Edition was used as a promotional aspect for the VR headset. ZeniMax has the emails of Luckey asking to use it and that same game can be found several times on the original Kickstarter campaign.
Since the copyright infringement is confirmed to have happened, it’s not far-fetched to see how Oculus was found guilty of false designation also. Since Oculus was using a well-known name, such as Doom, it would appear to the average consumer that Oculus had the backing of ZeniMax and id Software.
While it might seem that Oculus can just pay the fines and then go back to its normal business, there is one major problem. The jury found Oculus and Luckey guilty of breaking the NDA, the same contract that ZeniMax said included copyrighted code when the complaint was filed. ZeniMax is now considering using this to go back to court to halt the sales of the Oculus Rift. It’s not clear what direction that ZeniMax may go in, but the potential for a case is clear.
