IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS DALLAS DIVISION
ZENIMAX MEDIA INC. and ID SOFTWARE LLC, Plaintiffs, v. OCULUS VR, INC. and PALMER LUCKEY, Defendants. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:14-01849-P JURY TRIAL DEMANDED
ANSWER AND AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSES
“I warned [Luckey] ahead of time that it was a foregone conclusion that some of the media would report the Rift as my work, despite my ve[r]y explicit description otherwise.” -- id Software Technical Director and ZeniMax employee John Carmack on Meant To Be Seen (mtbs3d.com), referring to the Rift developed by Palmer Luckey (June 7, 2012) * * * Defendants Oculus VR, Inc. and Palmer Luckey (collectively, “Defendants”), by their attorneys, submit their Answer and Affirmative Defenses in response to Plaintiffs ZeniMax Media Inc. and id Software LLC’s (collectively, “ZeniMax”) Complaint. ZeniMax’s Complaint falsely claims ownership in Oculus VR technology in a transparent attempt to take advantage of the Oculus VR sale to Facebook. By deliberately misstating some facts and omitting others, ZeniMax makes the incredible assertion that it, a videogame software publishing company for personal computers and consoles like the Sony PlayStation, invented and developed a virtual reality hardware and software system. The truth is quite different. There is not a line of ZeniMax code or any of its technology in any Oculus VR product. Indeed, ZeniMax had never identified any ‘stolen’ code or technology in any Oculus VR product,
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- 2 - although ZeniMax had the full source code for the Oculus VR software for over a year and a half (having received it directly from Oculus VR well before it was even released publicly), and could have analyzed it online anytime (at developer.oculusvr.com). Until the Facebook deal, and the perceived chance for a quick payout, ZeniMax never raised any claim of infringement against Oculus VR, undoubtedly because ZeniMax never has contributed any intellectual property or technology to Oculus VR. The Oculus Rift was conceived by a gifted teenage inventor, Palmer Luckey. Luckey pioneered major advancements in virtual reality technology. He then decided to turn those advancements into something other people could use in the form of the Rift -- the world’s leading, head-mounted, virtual reality headset. Luckey created many working virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays (HMDs), incorporated a number of different motion sensors into those HMDs, shared his work publicly, and displayed those HMDs live on numerous occasions -- all before having any interaction or communication with ZeniMax. Over the years, Luckey created multiple Oculus Rift prototypes he called the “PR1,” “PR2,” “PR3,” etc. Luckey’s goal was to produce modular HMD kits that developers could purchase to test with various hardware components and software applications. As his research progressed, Luckey shared his work on MTBS3D, as shown below: (Rift prototype images of November 21, 2010) Before ZeniMax made any contact with Luckey, he already had demonstrated those Rift prototypes publicly with various virtual reality-specific software and even Rift-specific
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- 3 - applications with matching software pre-distortion (including videogames, PTSD treatments, and movies). For example, in January 2012 a filmmaker and journalist used one of Luckey’s prototypes to screen a showing of an immersive journalism film at the Sundance Film Festival. As the Huffington Post described of the experience, Luckey’s prototype let users “move around the area as you like and interact with other people.” With just a few scenes, “participants’ reactions . . . were quite emotional . . . ‘People are coming out crying, freaked out, upset . . . . You can trick your mind into really thinking you’re there.’” (Image of Rift prototype and display of software pre-distortion in
“Hunger In Los Angeles”: Virtual Reality Makes Journalism Immersive, Pixelated
, The Huffington Post (January 30, 2012) available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/hunger-in-los-angeles_n_1241468.html) Only much later,
after
these demonstrations, did Luckey connect with John Carmack, the world-renowned videogame developer (then working for ZeniMax). Carmack requested one of Luckey’s Rift prototypes to use at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (“E3”) industry convention in 2012. Carmack was interested in potentially using the Rift prototype, along with several other HMDs that Carmack had already acquired, to conduct demonstrations of his videogame
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