Oculus Responds To ZeniMax Accusations

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Oculus Rift has responded to accusations made by ZeniMax that John Carmack improperly took ZeniMax's intellectual property with him when he left the company.

The Facebook-owned Oculus VR--maker of the popular Oculus Rift virtual reality headset--today responded to last week's claims that it stole VR technology from Fallout and Elder Scrolls parent company ZeniMax. In a statement, Oculus VR said: "We are disappointed but not surprised by ZeniMax’s actions and we will prove that all of its claims are false." The company also provided a list of key points they say are relevant to the situation.
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I do not see how ZeniMax can claim intellectual property to the knowledge in John's head.
No doubt he jumped ships because Zenimax axed the development of some VR projects John was working on.
I think John is wise enough to realize the future in gaming is in real immersion which is VR development. The rest has stagnated.
 
Zepharus said:
sounds guilty to me...
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Sounds slightly pissed to me...
The "disappointed but not surprised" really strikes me that way, and gives every point they make an edge in my mind.

But we'll have to wait until actual proof is submitted, and not just these accusations being thrown around.
 
Elios said:
from 97? and the verdict was? ....
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I dunno, that was like 25 years before I was even born. :eek: It doesn't really matter anyhow what the verdict was in that case unless it established a legal precedence (which usually is only broadly acknowledged if it happens at a pretty high uppity-up court) and the agreements that random guy had are differently worded than whatever was between this John Carmack person and ZeniMax. Guessing what'll happen now because of what happened then prolly isn't very useful.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
I posted it before, but yeah...it can happen:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/empl...cle_e4914839-fa10-5cee-90f4-09cafdef3c42.html
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Wow, unbelievable.

But come to think of it I use to work for a company that required me to sign a "non competitive" agreement with them. I did so never thinking the issue would never come to a head.
Their concern was an ex-employee starting his own company and taking their customer away from them. One of my fellow employees had a lawyer look at the document and found it was 100% illegal. They cannot legally bind you find pursuing employment or starting a business in your own field. When I took a job offer from another company they tried to hold the agreement I signed some 9 years before over my head. Told them I new it was not legally binding in the first place and besides the company I was going to work for was a national company not a local one; not competing directly with them in any way.
 
The publicly available SDK from Occulus is what's this is going to hinge on. Zenimax will have to prove in court that the SDK has stolen source code. If they can't do that they have no case.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
Wow, unbelievable.

But come to think of it I use to work for a company that required me to sign a "non competitive" agreement with them. I did so never thinking the issue would never come to a head.
Their concern was an ex-employee starting his own company and taking their customer away from them. One of my fellow employees had a lawyer look at the document and found it was 100% illegal. They cannot legally bind you find pursuing employment or starting a business in your own field. When I took a job offer from another company they tried to hold the agreement I signed some 9 years before over my head. Told them I new it was not legally binding in the first place and besides the company I was going to work for was a national company not a local one; not competing directly with them in any way.
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Depending the documents, they usually aren't enforceable. I've known people who have had these used in a predatory way. It's easy -- find talent with a large network of clients, hire them with non-compete, wait 3 months, fire them and keep their clients because they can't take a job in the same sector for X time.
 
Doesn't OculusVR have Facebook's legal team behind it now?

I'm not sure this this will end well for zenimax
 
DPI said:
Doesn't OculusVR have Facebook's legal team behind it now?

I'm not sure this this will end well for zenimax
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Yeah, but ZeniMax has more lawyers than voice actors. :eek: Which means there are at least four of members of the company's legal team that Facebook has to deal with.
 
Money will change hands and all will be forgiven. Only the lawyers will win.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Yeah, but ZeniMax has more lawyers than voice actors. :eek: Which means there are at least four of members of the company's legal team that Facebook has to deal with.
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This debacle has more intriguing plot-lines than all the elder scrolls games combined, meaning slightly less than 1
 
DPI said:
See, now today I like you again :)
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Aw gee! .... Wait, does that mean I'm not doing a good job? :confused:

mastaBlasta said:
This debacle has more intriguing plot-lines than all the elder scrolls games combined, meaning slightly less than 1
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It probably has less day-1 bugs that cause random crashes to the desktop and prevent you from finishing those 0 intriguing plots.

octoberasian said:
That's like the equivalent of someone own your body, mind and soul. I don't know how can any of that be legally binding in any court of law. Employees can't and shouldn't be treated like possessive property with a value on them. Last time we did that in this country they called it slavery.
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Yeah, it kinda sucks doesn't it? I never did figure out what happened, but Koothulu says the guy lost and the courts forced him to give up the idea he only ever had in his head. That's pretty lame and it does make you wonder what'll happen in this case.

Koolthulu said:
Brown lost and was forced to give his code to his ex-employer.
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CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Yeah, it kinda sucks doesn't it? I never did figure out what happened, but Koothulu says the guy lost and the courts forced him to give up the idea he only ever had in his head. That's pretty lame and it does make you wonder what'll happen in this case.
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Pretty easy to Google it. Google has an except from a book about IP ownership and it spends a few pages on this case. From what I read, Brown was forced to write over 400 pages of code for his ex-employer, lost the job he had at the time, then ended up filing for bankruptcy. The company had spent over $500,000 to take him to court. And the kicker was the idea apparently couldn't even be made to work. So it was all for nothing.
 
Zenimax is sounding like it hired some of the business suits that work at EA

Looks like I will be not be supporting this company in the future, and will advise others of this company's deplorable antics.
 
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