Catch Up on the Explosive $2 Billion Lawsuit Against Facebook Before Zuck Takes the Stand

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he wants to get out the Silicon Valley bubble andtravel to different partsof America as part of his 2017 New Year ’s resolve . It looks like the first stop on his journey will be a Northern District of Texas Federal courtroom .

Zuckerberg , Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey , andformerOculus CEO Brendan Iribe will testify this week in a $ 2 billion dollar lawsuit brought by ZeniMax Media , the owners of telecasting secret plan developers Bethesda Softworks and i d Software , against Oculus VR . Facebook bought Oculus for $ 2 billion in 2014 .

ZeniMax say that Oculus slip craft secrets , in part when former senior ZeniMax employee John Carmack left ZeniMax andjoinedOculus as primary technical officer . Zenimax also aver Oculus infringed on its copyright and that Luckey violated a non - disclosure agreement he sign with ZeniMax in 2014 . Toni Sammi , a attorney for ZeniMax , cry it “ one of the heavy engineering heists ever , ” when he present unwritten arguments on Tuesday . ZeniMax is seek $ 2 billion in redress . Luckey has long been credited as the Rift ’s Godhead , but ZeniMax alleges that the supposedly groundbreaking VR software Carmack worked on at i d was reimplemented when he joined Oculus . ZeniMax has endeavor to prove this by pointing to a video recording interview where Carmack shows off a functioning practical realness headset before he had ever met or collaborated with Luckey .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

Facebook has rejected ZeniMax ’s claim , foretell its story a fantasy . Facebook contends that ZeniMax is litigate because the company passed on a purpose partnership and investment chance with Oculus before it had been acquired by Facebook . Initially , Oculus offered 2 pct of its company to Zenimax , and later offered 15 per centum . The mess was that Oculus could build up practical realness hardware and ZeniMax could deal software and content , like games . ZeniMax passed on both go . “ This case , because ZeniMax and the owners of ZeniMax feel badly , embarrassed , humiliated , that they did n’t do the deal , that they did n’t commit in this VR applied science when they could have , they desire to rewrite history , “ Beth Wilkinson , a lawyer for Facebook said last week during the company ’s opening controversy .

This case has a long account . In 2014 , right after Mark Zuckerbergpublicly announcedhis plans to produce Oculus , ZeniMax filed its lawsuit only against Oculus , and warned Facebook of the potential sound job connect with acquiring the party . ZeniMax alleges that Zuckerberg cursorily push through with the wad , and that Facebook did n’t preform adequate due diligence , ignore a letter charge by ZeniMax threatening judicial proceeding .

While he was questioned by ZeniMax ’s attorney last week , Carmack admit to take on thousands of documents and lines of code . “ I copied file that I should n’t have . I think steal is an uncharitable way to look at it since I did n’t benefit and ZeniMax did n’t lose , but I should n’t have done it , and I did , ” Carmack said while being questioned by ZeniMax ’s lawyer . In testimonial , Carmack was eager to talk about the documents he shoot , and explained that “ by the exacting intellectual dimension definition ” his copying of documents was considered steal . Carmack argued that the e-mail he copy did n’t contain origin codification , rather just snippets of source codification , but , Carmack said , there may have been source computer code included in the attachments of the emails .

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In its possible action argument , ZeniMax presented some of Zuckerberg ’s emails that it obtain through uncovering , include emails sent from fellow Silicon Valley billionaire , Oculus investor and fellow Facebook board phallus Marc Andreessen to Zuckerberg . “ blow my mentality wide heart-to-heart , ” Andreessen wrote to Zuck in 2014 regarding Oculus . “ The cay seems to be that they have append John Carmack , conscientious objector - founder of i d , co - creator of Doom and Quake , and essentially the inventor of 3D computer secret plan and one of the all time cracking hackers as CTO . ”

ZeniMax also alleged in its argument that Carmack helped select employees for Oculus to poach from i d Software . ZeniMax presented an electronic mail written by Carmack in 2014 , after he had joined Oculus , that lists four i d Software employees , including at least two engineers .

The test summarise Tuesday in Dallas , and Zuckerberg will be the first person call to take the stand . Luckey and Iribe will take after . It ’ll be Palmer Luckey ’s first public appearance since the Daily Beastrevealedhis support and involvement with Nimble America , a pro - Trump political organization that utilise memes . ( RIPPalmer Watch ) It ’s unclear if Zuck will be sporting his Hellenic grey shirt and blue jeans , but we will be reporting from the trial and will provide an update .

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