Facebook settles lawsuit with game company over technology dispute

In this file photo dated March 29, 2018, the logo for social media giant Facebook, appears on screens at the Nasdaq MarketSite, in New York's Times Square. The British Parliament’s media committee seized confidential Facebook documents from a developer and on Wednesday Dec. 5, 2018, has released a cache of documents that show Facebook considered charging developers for data access.[Photo: AP]

U.S. tech giant Facebook has reached a settlement with video gaming firm ZeniMax Media over a lawsuit alleging Facebook's theft of ZeniMax-held proprietary virtual reality (VR) technology, ZeniMax CEO Robert Altman said in a statement published on Wednesday.

The terms of the settlement reached earlier in the day was not disclosed, but Altman said his company was satisfied with the result.

"We are pleased that a settlement has been reached and are fully satisfied by the outcome," Altman said in the statement.

"While we dislike litigation, we will always vigorously defend against any infringement or misappropriation of our intellectual property by third parties," he said.

ZeniMax sued Facebook, which bought VR hardware manufacturer Oculus in 2014, for improperly using data provided by John Carmack, who was chief software designer of ZeniMax-owned Id Software company. ZeniMax alleged that Carmack stole its technological secrets to help Oculus develop the Oculus Rift VR headset products.

A federal jury found Oculus guilty of copyright infringement and awarded ZeniMax 500 million U.S. dollars in damages in 2017, but a district court in Dallas, Texas state reduced the amount to 250 million dollars in June 2018 after Facebook and Oculus appealed.

A Facebook spokesperson told local media it will focus more time on development of its VR products after the case is closed.