ZeniMax Sues Oculus VR Over Trade Secrets

ZeniMax has finally made good on their threats of legal action against Oculus VR and launched a lawsuit against the VR pioneer over the alleged theft of trade secrets by ZeniMax-turned-Oculus employee John Carmack.

 Carmack left ZeniMax last September, where he had worked as the founder of id Software and one of the creators of the Doom franchise, and joined the Kickstarter company Oculus VR to work with them on the Oculus Rift. According to ZeniMax, Carmack stole proprietary ideas from the company and they've now chosen to sue Oculus for "misappropriating ZeniMax trade secrets relating to virtual reality technology." 

According to an earlier statement by ZeniMax, the publisher also lent "VR technology and other valuable assistance to Palmer Luckey [Oculus' founder]" in the last two years to help the Oculus Rift become viable for market, for which Oculus VR never compensated them. On their part, Oculus has vehemently denied the claims, noting that while Zenimax claims to have had its intellectual property stolen, they never (until these legal proceedings) identified a single line of ZeniMax's code or other infringements in the code for the Oculus Rift, which is available for free in its entirety online.

In a press release on Wednesday, ZeniMax announced legal proceedings against Oculus Rift for misappropriating trade secrets and infringing ZeniMax's copyrights and trademarks, as well as claims over breach of contract and unjust enrichment.