ZeniMax files for injunction over Oculus code

ZeniMax Media has delivered on its promise to file for an injunction against Oculus, filing papers with a Dallas court asking that products using disputed code be removed from sale.

The injunction papers were filed yesterday, according to a report from Reuters, in the same court that heard its case against Oculus VR and its founders Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe last month. The trial resulted in the award of $500 million in damages to ZeniMax.

This injunction specifically relates to lines of code used by developers creating software for Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR. If the injunction takes effect, it will have an impact on which games can be sold for those devices.

A spokeswoman for Oculus, Tera Randall, stated that the company is appealing the original verdict, describing it as, "legally flawed and factually unwarranted."

Oculus CTO John Carmack made a similar point in the aftermath of the trial, describing ZeniMax Media's argument that Oculus code was "non-literally copied" from work he undertook at id Software as akin to saying Harry Potter was stealing from Joseph Campbell's theory of The Hero's Journey - "which also maps well onto Star Wars and hundreds of other stories."

ZeniMax responded with its own statement, pointing out that expert testimony had asserted "both literal and non-literal copying," and that, "Oculus programmers themselves admitted using ZeniMax's copyrighted code.

"Not surprisingly, the jury found ZeniMax code copyrights were infringed."

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