Oculus VR Responds to ZeniMax’s ‘Silly, Money-Grabbing’ Lawsuit

Oculus VR did not have any kind words to say in its formal response to the lawsuit filed against the studio by ZeniMax.

Kotaku reports that Oculus VR has formally responded to the lawsuit it faces from ZeniMax Media. ZeniMax accuses Oculus of "illegally misappropriating" its trade secrets and industry know-how for virtual reality technology. Much of this lawsuit revolves around John Carmack. The studio known for publishing the Doom series is suing the company where one of its creators is now employed. Carmack was lead programmer for Doom, Quake, Rage, Wolfenstein 3D and many of their sequels and helped create Id Software, which are now all owned by ZeniMax Media.

ZeniMax claims that Oculus broke copyright infringement laws and trademarks and that Carmack brought pivotal VR technology and coding over to Oculus VR when he was hired there in late 2013. The company allegedly states that Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey would never have been able to create the Oculus Rift headset without ZeniMax's help.

The lawsuit states the following, "Rather than compensate ZeniMax for the use of its intellectual property, Defendants then sought to obtain additional virtual reality know-how by recruiting ZeniMax employees, including Carmack, to join Oculus."

PR representatives for Oculus VR have responded to ZeniMax's lawsuit today, labeling it as "money-grabbing" and "silly." The company mentions that ZeniMax never cared for its VR interests until right after Facebook purchased Oculus VR for $2 billion. One of the reasons why Carmack left ZeniMax was because he claimed the studio was uninterested in the Rift itself.

Part of Oculus VR's response reads as follows:

The truth is quite different. There is not a line of ZeniMax code or any of its technology in any Oculus VR product. Indeed, ZeniMax had never identified any 'stolen' code or technology in any Oculus VR product, although ZeniMax had the full source code for the Oculus VR software for over a year and a half (having received it directly from Oculus VR well before it was even released publicly), and could have analyzed it online anytime.

Much of the formal response from Oculus VR details Palmer Luckey's origins of the Oculus Rift, including pictures of his early designs and prototypes, along with details of his friendship with John Carmack prior to and after his resignation from Id Software.

"ZeniMax had a golden opportunity to make an early investment in Oculus VR and chose to pass," Oculus claims. "The lawsuit is nothing more than ZeniMax seeking to correct for a massive missed opportunity through the assertion of meritless litigation."

We have provided a copy of Oculus VR's full response to ZeniMax's lawsuit below (courtesy of Kotaku).