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

Now that its lawsuit against Oculus has gone to trial, Zenimax feels confident of victory.

As we reported last week, the two-and-a-half year-old lawsuit filed by Zenimax against Oculus has finally begun in Federal District Court in Dallas, Texas. While Oculus made a public statement 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).