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ZeniMax files injunction to halt Oculus Rift and VR game sales
Earlier this month, game publisher ZeniMax Media Inc. won a hefty $500 million copyright infringement case against the Facebook-owned Oculus VR Inc., but it looks like ZeniMax isn’t through yet.
Today ZeniMax filed for a permanent injunction against Oculus that would prevent the company from selling its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset or any other device that might use ZeniMax’s code.
According to Reuters, ZeniMax filed its injunction today with the same Dallas court that tried its copyright case. If it’s successful, the game publisher could deal a serious blow not only to Oculus, but also to Facebook’s position in the growing virtual reality market. Reuters notes that the injunction would not only affect the Rift, but it could prevent the sale of some VR games for the Samsung Gear VR, which Oculus developed.
Oculus continues to maintain its innocence in the case, particularly concerning ZeniMax’s accusations that the company stole trade secrets to create its VR devices. Following the court’s verdict, Oculus released a statement, saying, “The heart of this case was about whether Oculus stole ZeniMax’s trade secrets, and the jury found decisively in our favor. We look forward to filing our appeal and eventually putting this litigation behind us.”
So far ZeniMax has remained silent on its latest legal action, so it is unclear what exactly the company hopes to gain by halting sales of Oculus Rift or Gear VR games. ZeniMax and its subsidiaries are primarily game developers rather than hardware designers, and the company has published a number of critically and commercially successful games, including “Fallout 4,” “Skyrim,” “Dishonored” and the recent reboot of “Doom.” Several of ZeniMax’s own studios have shown an interest in producing games for VR, so shutting Oculus down entirely would leave them with fewer platforms where they could publish their products.
In a statement, Oculus downplayed ZeniMax’s filing and criticized the court’s original decision against the VR company. “ZeniMax’s motion does not change the fact that the verdict was legally flawed and factually unwarranted,” an Oculus spokesperson said, adding once again that the company may appeal the court’s verdict.
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