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1 September 2014Patents

Facebook added to Oculus suit following acquisition

Facebook has been added to a lawsuit in which a company it recently acquired has been accused of IP infringement.

The company, Oculus, which makes virtual reality technology, was bought by the social network for just over $2 billion in July.

Before that acquisition, WIPR reported that a US video game publisher called ZeniMax Media had sued Oculus, arguing that it owned the IP rights to Oculus’s Rift headset.

The Rift, which has yet to be released, is designed to allow people to enter an immersive computer-generated environment such as a computer game or a movie scene.

In the lawsuit, filed in May, ZeniMax said it believed the technology “propelled Oculus from a shoestring start-up to technology’s big leagues in less than two years”.

The company also alleged that the disputed technology was improperly taken from ZeniMax to Oculus by an employee named John Carmack, who joined Oculus last August.

Since acquiring Oculus, Facebook is now listed as a defendant according to the Washington Business Journal (WBJ).

“In the amended filing, ZeniMax argues that the social network plans to ‘leverage and commercially exploit Oculus’s virtual reality technology—which is built upon ZeniMax’s unlawfully misappropriated intellectual property—for the financial benefit of Facebook’s core business of online social networking and advertising’,” the WBJ reported.

“It claims that Oculus, in its merger agreement with Facebook, misrepresented the state of its intellectual property ownership,” the publication added.

In a previous statement, an Oculus spokesman rejected ZeniMax’s allegations.

“It’s unfortunate, but when there’s this type of transaction, people come out of the woodwork with ridiculous and absurd claims. We intend to vigorously defend Oculus and its investors to the fullest extent.”

The $2 billion deal comprised $1.6 billion in stock and around $400 million in cash, although it has been reported that Facebook will pay Oculus an additional $300 million in cash and stock if it hits certain milestones.

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment on its addition to the lawsuit.

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Patents
1 May 2014   Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of a company that makes virtual reality technology is potentially at risk after claims of IP infringement.