Judge Halves ZeniMax's $500M Oculus Payout, Rejects to Ban Rift Sales
The $500 million that a Texas jury awarded ZeniMax Media in its lawsuit against Oculus and its parent company, Facebook, last year has now been reduced in half to $250 million in a new court ruling.
As reported by Bloomberg, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade upheld the jury’s 2017 decision to award $200 million for breach of contract and another $50 million for copyright infringement. The $250 million that he eliminated includes damages against Oculus co-founders Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe. Additionally, Kinkeade rejected ZeniMax’s request that he ban the sales of Oculus Rift headsets due to alleged violations of its copyright.
The initial sum of $500 million was cut in half after Oculus argued that the infringement wasn’t substantial enough to warrant such a large award, claiming that only seven lines of Oculus code had been copied from ZeniMax, “out of approximately 42 billion lines,” according to Bloomberg.
ZeniMax is said to be pleased with its $250 million win, but overall is disappointed that the initial jury verdict had been reduced to half the original figure, and is reportedly weighing its next step.
As for Facebook and Oculus, it seems the fight isn’t over just yet, as they plan to appeal the remaining claims set against them in an effort to further reduce the awarded damages. “We’ve said from day one the ZeniMax case is deeply flawed, and today the court agreed. Today’s ruling slashed the verdict in half, granted our motion for sanctions, and fully denied ZeniMax’s attempt to stop us from selling and marketing our products,” Paul Grewal, vice-president and deputy general counsel at Facebook, said in a statement.
“This was a positive step toward a fair resolution, and we will be appealing the remaining claims. Our commitment to Oculus is unwavering and we will continue to invest in building the future of VR.”