After Winning Lawsuit Against Facebook, ZeniMax Sues Samsung Over VR

ZeniMax, the parent company of Fallout and Elder Scrolls publisher Bethesda, has launched another lawsuit related to virtual reality. Having already successfully sued Facebook over Oculus Rift (and winning a $500 million judgement in the process), ZeniMax has now filed a lawsuit against Samsung over its Gear VR headset. Samsung worked with Oculus on Gear VR, and the suit claims that Samsung profited from Oculus technology, which it claims should be sourced to ZeniMax.

According to The Verge, ZeniMax's lawsuit claims that John Carmack, a former ZeniMax employee when he worked at id Software, "secretly brought Oculus (and former ZeniMax) employee Matt Hooper into id Software's offices to develop an 'attack plan' for mobile VR, which Oculus would later take to Samsung."

ZeniMax is arguing that Samsung should have been aware of the company's lawsuit against Oculus, but the suit states that Samsung "continued to develop the Gear VR with full knowledge of ZeniMax's allegations and without obtaining any right or permission from ZeniMax to use any of its copyrights or other confidential information."

In terms of specifics, ZeniMax alleges copyright infringement for code used in Gear VR, along with "trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition, and unjust enrichment."

What impact the ZeniMax case against Facebook has on the company's new battle with Samsung remains to be seen. We'll report back with more details on this case as they become available.

In the wake of the $500 million award to ZeniMax from the Facebook case, Carmack launched a lawsuit of his own against ZeniMax, seeking $22.5 million.

For more on the ZeniMax/Oculus case, check out GameSpot's interview feature with Oculus VP Jason Rubin below.

• Interview: Oculus VP On Moving Forward After A $500 Million Settlement

Disclosure: Leslie Moonves, the CEO of GameSpot parent company CBS Corp., is on the ZeniMax board of directors.