Zenimax is accusing John Carmack of stealing its technology and using it to make Oculus Rift a viable Virtual Reality system.
Zenimax believes that Oculus Rift would have stayed a "garage-based pipe dream" without the experience and technology Carmack acquired while working at Zenimax. "It was only through the concerted efforts of Mr. Carmack, using technology developed over many years at, and owned by, Zenimax, that Mr. [Palmer] Luckey [Oculus founder] was able to transform his garage-based pipe dream into a working reality," Zenimax told Oculus and Facebook lawyers in a letter last April.
Carmack left Zenimax for Oculus in November 2013. Back then, Oculus was a (very) promising startup. Not much later, it was acquired by Facebook in a $2 billion deal.
Oculus isn't happy to be facing those allegations, but the company is adamant on proving them wrong. "It's unfortunate, but when there's this type of transaction, people come out of the woodwork with ridiculous and absurd claims," said an Oculus represntative. "We intend to vigorously defend Oculus and its investors to the fullest extent."
Responding to Zenimax's accusations, John Carmack tweeted that he didn't use any code owned or patented by Zenimax while working at Oculus.
No work I have ever done has been patented. Zenimax owns the code that I wrote, but they don't own VR.
— John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) May 1, 2014
Oculus uses zero lines of code that I wrote while under contract to Zenimax.
— John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) May 1, 2014