A bit of potential legal trouble for Oculus and John Carmack as ZeniMax, Carmack’s former employer, is staking their claim on the Oculus Rift technology. The Wall Street Journal initially reported ZeniMax had delivered two legal notices to Oculus. ZeniMax later confirmed the conflict with Oculus via a statement sent to several news outlets, and said that key technologies for the Virtual Reality headset were developed while Carmack worked for the company.
Carmack is the co-found of id Software, while id is a subsidiary of ZeniMax. To get a better sense of the timeline of events, reportedly back in 2012 Oculus founder and prototype creator Palmer Luckey was doing research at the University of Southern California when Carmack, still an employee of ZeniMax, got in touch with him. Carmack was already doing his own virtual reality research, and liked Luckey’s prototype. id Software would later announce an Oculus Rift compatible version of Doom 3, while Carmack would later show off a duct taped version of the prototype running his own software.
In August 2012 the Oculus Rift kickstarter would launch, and in September well surpass its goal making 2.4 million. The Wall Street Journal says an anonymous source tells them ZeniMax started pressing legal procedures back in 2012 when Carmack and Luckey first teamed up. This is important in wake of the fact the Oculus Rift recently sold to Facebook for a hefty amount of cash and market stock. It’s not simply a cash grab due to Oculus’ recent glory on ZeniMax’s part, but a long running legal play.
Here is a copy of the statement released by ZeniMax:
“ZeniMax confirms it recently sent formal notice of its legal rights to Oculus concerning its ownership of key technology used by Oculus to develop and market the Oculus Rift. ZeniMax’s technology may not be licensed, transferred or sold without ZeniMax Media’s approval. ZeniMax’s intellectual property rights arise by reason of extensive VR research and development works done over a number of years by John Carmack while a ZeniMax employee, and others. ZeniMax provided necessary VR technology and other valuable assistance to Palmer Luckey and other Oculus employees in 2012 and 2013 to make the Oculus Rift a viable VR product, superior to other VR market offerings.
The proprietary technology and know-how Mr. Carmack developed when he was a ZeniMax employee, and used by Oculus, are owned by ZeniMax. Well before the Facebook transaction was announced, Mr. Luckey acknowledged in writing ZeniMax’s legal ownership of this intellectual property. It was further agreed that Mr. Luckey would not disclose this technology to third persons without approval. Oculus has used and exploited ZeniMax’s technology and intellectual property without authorization, compensation or credit to ZeniMax. ZeniMax and Oculus previously attempted to reach an agreement whereby ZeniMax would be compensated for its intellectual property through equity ownership in Oculus but were unable to reach a satisfactory resolution. ZeniMax believes it is necessary to address these matters now and will take the necessary action to protect its interests.”
Things get a bit trickier here. ZeniMax is claiming the code, which could be dangerous for Oculus, since Luckey developed the hardware while he was an intern at USC (which without wading into too much legal murk, means Luckey doesn’t necessarily own the hardware if USC decides to dip its toes in the water.) Then even if Carmack developed all the code on his own, ZeniMax can still claim it was on company time and therefore their property.
Oculus released its own statement in response:
“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,”
While Carmack himself took to twitter.
No work I have ever done has been patented. Zenimax owns the code that I wrote, but they don’t own VR.
— John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) May 1, 2014
This isn’t like other legal disputes we’ve seen in the video game world, such as King saying it was only exercising copyright law or Nintendo throwing out a cease and desist. If Oculus and ZeniMax don’t come to a settlement out of court we could see a legal battle that holds up the development of the Oculus. It’s also not something to be fought out in the court of public opinion. Since ZeniMax has been so persistent in its pursuit you can bet this is something that won’t just go away, either.
This may be the first we’ve heard of this story, but don’t expect it to be the last.
