Zenimax Claims Theft of Trade Secrets and Destruction of Evidence By Oculus

[ffronw]

Zenimax Claims Theft of Trade Secrets and Destruction of Evidence By Oculus

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1374/1374966.jpgNow that its lawsuit against Oculus has gone to trial, Zenimax feels confident of victory.

As we public statement [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/169236-Zenimax-Suit-Against-Oculus-Goes-to-Trial] last week, Zenimax has been silent until today.

In an emailed statement the parent company of id Software spoke confidently about the proceedings:

"With the start of the trial of our case in Federal District Court in Dallas against Defendants Facebook, Oculus and its management, ZeniMax and id Software welcome the opportunity to present substantial evidence of the Defendants' misappropriation of our Virtual Reality (VR) intellectual property. That evidence includes the theft of trade secrets and highly confidential information, including computer code. ZeniMax will also present evidence of the Defendants' intentional destruction of evidence to cover up their wrongdoing. ZeniMax and id Software are the visionary developers of breakthrough VR technology, and look forward to the vindication of our claims."

The previously made Oculus statement read,

"We're eager to present our case in court. 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."

Opening arguments took place last week, and testimony will begin this week. It's expected that Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, id Software co-founder and former chief technical officer John Carmack, and Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey will be among those called to testify.

Based on the statements from the two companies, this could turn out to be an ugly trial.

The trial is expected to run roughly three weeks. We'll be following its progress, but if you'd like to follow along as well, you can find it listed as ZeniMax Media Inc. v. Oculus VR Inc., 3:14-cv-01849, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas).

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[Saelune]

You mention id cause they are very involved in this case right? Cause when I think of Zenimax, I think Bethesda.

I honestly have no idea what to think of all this. I certainly hope the truth wins out, I just hope I like what the truth is. I dont want to think Zenimax is just being greedy, but I am inclined to distrust the plaintiff in these situations.

But I like Zenimax more than Facebook, easily.

 

[09philj]

As I said before, John Carmack wouldn't need to steal the code, but it's also something he would do.

 

[Czann]

Let's remember ZeniMax sued mojang because of the word Scroll. The Scroll word...

SuehappyMax may not be in the right here.

 

[Janaschi]

I have no opinion, either way, as I'm not going to pretend to know anything that I really don't.

The only thing that I will say, is that ZeniMax claims to have surveillance footage of Carmack on company property after he was no longer under their employment, which coincides with the technology disappearing, along with quite a bit of its research.

They have not actually provided the evidence that they claimed to have, so who knows. But if they can show that footage at court, and link it with the time that their property went missing, then they may have a case.

 

[mad825]

I have no opinion, either way, as I'm not going to pretend to know anything that I really don't.

The only thing that I will say, is that ZeniMax claims to have surveillance footage of Carmack on company property after he was no longer under their employment, which coincides with the technology disappearing, along with quite a bit of its research.

They have not actually provided the evidence that they claimed to have, so who knows. But if they can show that footage at court, and link it with the time that their property went missing, then they may have a case.

They don't even need CCTV footage. If ID's IT policy are pretty tight then it can be easily be traced back to Carmack's access logs.

 

[Janaschi]

I have no opinion, either way, as I'm not going to pretend to know anything that I really don't.

The only thing that I will say, is that ZeniMax claims to have surveillance footage of Carmack on company property after he was no longer under their employment, which coincides with the technology disappearing, along with quite a bit of its research.

They have not actually provided the evidence that they claimed to have, so who knows. But if they can show that footage at court, and link it with the time that their property went missing, then they may have a case.

They don't even need CCTV footage. If ID's IT policy are pretty tight then it can be easily be traced back to Carmack's access logs.

That's the question, though, isn't it.

At this point, there's really no telling, from what's known, publicly. Just a lot of mud being thrown around, which doesn't particularly interest me much.

 

[The Enquirer]

Well, this'll be interesting to follow.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I honestly have no idea what to think of all this. I certainly hope the truth wins out, I just hope I like what the truth is. I dont want to think Zenimax is just being greedy, but I am inclined to distrust the plaintiff in these situations.

It would make me laugh like a drain if everything Zenimax is claiming turns out to be true, but Carmack's contract gave him joint ownership of everything he touched and the right to do with it as he pleased once he was no longer a Zenimax employee.

That would make me giggle for days.

 

[Zulnam]

Not once do they state exactly what piece of technology was stolen.

Was it a full blown vr headset that the suits ar zenimax were using as a paperweight? Or an API call that makes the fancy green light go BOOP.

Whatever, Facebook vs ZeniMax probably gets a resounding "meh" in terms of sympathy for either side.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

They don't even need CCTV footage. If ID's IT policy are pretty tight then it can be easily be traced back to Carmack's access logs.

If id's IT policy was tight, it would have closed his login after he left the company. And if Carmack set up an alternate account for him to access afterwards, we might be treading in corporate espionage territory.

 

[Fox12]

 

[hermes]

As I said before, John Carmack wouldn't need to steal the code, but it's also something he would do.

It is something he did. Granted, he shared as much of his code as he would take from others, but he wasn't above stealing company property on a pickup to work on personal projects during the weekend.

 

[hermes]

As I said before, John Carmack wouldn't need to steal the code, but it's also something he would do.

It is something he did. Granted, he shared as much of his code as he would take from others, but he wasn't above stealing company property on a pickup to work on personal projects during the weekend.

He seriously did that?

Yeah. While working on Softdisk in the late 80s; he, Romero and Adrian Carmack* took out the company computers in a truck a Friday night and return them next Monday morning. That was the birthplace of Commander Keen.

* not related