US courts have halved Oculus’ $500 damages fee to ZeniMax

A US federal court in Dallas has halved Oculus’ $500 million fine to Zenimax, a fine which was given to Facebook/Oculus after it became clear to jurors that Oculus was using ZeniMax code in their devices and that Oculus’ co-founder Palmer Luckey had violated a non-disclosure agreement with the company. 

Initially, the Courts ordered Oculus to pay $200 million for breach of contract, $50 million for copyright infringement and $50 million for false designation. Oculus’ Co-founder and former CEO Brendan Iribe was also ordered to pay $150 million, while Palmer Lucky was ordered to pay $50 million. These fines amount to a total of $500 million, a number that was appealed by Oculus.

Today only the $200 million fine for breach of contract and the $50 million fine for copyright infringement remain, with US District Judge Ed Kinkeade stating that Zenimax lacked sufficient evidence for the other charges. Judge Kinkeade has also refused ZeniMax’s request for a ban of all Oculus sales and promotion over their copyright violation. 

Facebook has stated that they are repealing ZeniMax’s remaining claims against Oculus, hoping to lower their fines further. Facebook has also said that they remain committed to Oculus and the future of VR. 

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