A few years ago Zenimax decided to sue Oculus for misappropriating trade secrets in the development of Oculus Rift. The court has now made its judgement.
According to Polygon, Oculus has been sentenced to pay Zenimax half a billion American dollars (approximately £395 million) because Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey failed to comply with a non-disclosure agreement he signed before he left Zenimax for Oculus. In fact, the damages are divided as follows: Oculus pay $200 million for breaking the NDA and $50 million for copyright infringement. Oculus and Palmer each have to pay $50 million for false designation. Finally, Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe has to pay $150 million for the same thing.
That's a lot of money, but not even close to the four billion American dollars Zenimax sought. This is because the jury didn't find Oculus guilty of misappropriating trade secrets or theft of intellectual properties, which the company had been accused of. During the trial it came to light just how abusive the relationship between the two partners had been.
Neither party has said if they will file for an appeal or not. But given the deep pockets Oculus have after being picked up by Facebook we doubt they'd want to risk another trial given they were only found guilty of lesser charges.