Fallout 4 Publisher's Lawsuit Against Oculus and Facebook Upheld in Court

A United States district court judge has upheld ZeniMax Media's pursuit of a lawsuit against Oculus and its parent company Facebook over alleged stolen secrets.

Polygon reports that Judge Jorge A. Solis dismissed motions by Oculus and Facebook to have the allegations levelled by the Fallout and Elder Scrolls publisher thrown out. As a result, the court case will proceed.

Solis's reasoning for upholding the lawsuit was that questions of fact are in dispute, with ZeniMax arguing unjust enrichment has taken place and Oculus/Facebook contending it has not. This dispute of facts must be settled in court.

For context, the contrast to this would be bringing the legality of the claim into question, which a judge can rule on and--if necessary--dismiss before the lawsuit battle proceeds.

"[Oculus and Facebook] contend that [ZeniMax's] claim should be dismissed because unjust enrichment is not a cause of action recognized under Texas law," the judgement reads. "[ZeniMax] counter argue that courts in this District have recently denied motions to dismiss unjust enrichment claims.

"The Court elects not to dismiss Plaintiffs' claim at this time. While it seems unsettled whether unjust enrichment may stand as an independent cause of action, where a plaintiff has plead a breach of contract action, [as ZeniMax has in this case], it may maintain an unjust theory of recovery as well."

Solis concludes: "Accordingly, Defendants' motion to dismiss is denied."

ZeniMax has told GameSpot it "will not have any comment" on the ruling as it is part of a pending legal matter. Oculus has also said "it is not commenting on the case."

In May 2014, it was reported ZeniMax is claiming rights to the intellectual property that powers the Oculus Rift headset.

The backbone of its claim is the allegation that former id Software designer John Carmack, who left the studio and its parent company ZeniMax to join Oculus in November 2013, "improperly took ZeniMax's intellectual property with him to Oculus."

This technology, ZeniMax says, helped Oculus VR grow from a fledgling startup to a Silicon Valley darling in under two years.

"ZeniMax believes it is necessary to address these matters now and will take the necessary action to protect its interests," the company said at the time.

"It's unfortunate, but when there's this type of transaction, people come out of the woodwork with ridiculous and absurd claims," an Oculus representative later responded. "We intend to vigorously defend Oculus and its investors to the fullest extent."

In a separate statement Oculus added: "We are disappointed but not surprised by ZeniMax’s actions and we will prove that all of its claims are false." The company also provided a list of key points they say are relevant to the situation. Many of these categorically deny ZeniMax's allegations.

For his part, Carmack took to Twitter and said "no work I have ever done has been patented. ZeniMax owns the code that I wrote, but they don't own VR. Oculus uses zero lines of code that I wrote while under contract to ZeniMax."

Oculus also recently made headlines for a Time Magazine cover which depicted Rift creator creator Palmer Luckey wearing his famous virtual reality headset while jumping in the air in front of a beach. The cover garnered criticism for painting the technology with a product-for-awkward-nerds stereotype in the mainstream.

The Internet, naturally, has taken the goofy Time Magazine Oculus Rift cover and turned it into a beautiful meme.