Back in early April Facebook’s Oculus motioned for a new trial in its ongoing legal battle with ZeniMax Media. Late last week the latter company hit back at that request.
It was over three months ago now that a Dallas jury ruled that co-founders Brendan Iribe and the now-departed Palmer Luckey must pay ZeniMax $500 million. In April, Oculus refuted that result, claiming the jury had been “tainted” and that the damages owed were “excessive”. Oculus and ZeniMax took their legal dispute to court when the latter claimed former employee John Carmack had given Oculus access to confidential resources when working on the Rift in its early days.
Last Friday ZeniMax asked the court to reject the motion. It reasoned that those damages were less than the original amount it had sought from Oculus (some $2 billion, close to the original $2.3 billion Facebook paid to acquire the company).
During the trial damages expert Daniel Jackson had also reportedly testified that Luckey and Iribe were overpaid by as much as $206 million and $427 million respectively in the Oculus acquisition. During the trial it transpired that Facebook may have paid closer to $3 billion to buy up the VR company.
ZeniMax also argued that Oculus had been defended by “seasoned counsel” from “three experienced law firms” and that its claims of a tainted jury were unfounded.
“Their motion demanding a new trial is nothing more than a disappointed litigant’s imagined catalogue of unfounded grievances,” the company argued. “They are entitled to no relief. Their motion should be denied.”
Both sides have had their say, now it remains to be seen if the request for a new trial will be granted or not. Even if it isn’t, ZeniMax itself has threatened a further injunction against Oculus and the sale of the Rift. This story is far from over and we’ll continue updating you as things progress.
