ZeniMax Media has agreed to settle the litigation it brought against Facebook, Oculus, and others for the unlawful misappropriation of its virtual reality technology.
“We are pleased that a settlement has been reached and are fully satisfied by the outcome,” said ZeniMax chairman and CEO, Robert Altman.
“While we dislike litigation, we will always vigorously defend against any infringement or misappropriation of our intellectual property by third parties.”
It marks the end of a legal battle that’s been raging for over four years, with ZeniMax initially suing Oculus all the way back in May 2014.
ZeniMax alleged the technology powering Oculus’ VR headsets was based on intellectual property it had developed, and claimed that Id Software co-founder John Carmack and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey stole its copyrighted code and research to reverse engineer what would eventually become the Oculus Rift headset.
Oculus and parent company Facebook denied the claims, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg even testified in court to assert that “Oculus products are build on Oculus technology.”
A Federal District Court jury eventually ruled in favor of ZeniMax, awarding the company $500 million and other relief, before U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade reduced the payout to $250 million after Oculus claimed the infringement wasn’t “substantial.”
Both parties then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and today reached an undisclosed settlement with the appeal still pending.