Zenimax goes for the jugular in new Oculus legal battle

After winning a $500 million lawsuit against Facebook, ZeniMax is now trying to block the company from selling its Oculus VR code.

Reuters reports that ZeniMax filed an injunction against Facebook in a federal court in Dallas. The same court ruled in Zenimax’s favor earlier this year, ordering Facebook and Oculus to pay a half-billion dollars to the game publisher for copyright infringement and violation of a non-disclosure agreement.

In the injunction, ZeniMax demands that products using the disputed code be blocked from sale. Since the code is at the core of the Rift system, this could cost Oculus even more time and money to change it.

ZeniMax first filed suit against Oculus in 2014, claiming former ZeniMax employee John Carmack and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey created the Rift from copyrighted code. The court ruled that ZeniMax’s trade secrets weren’t stolen, but that Oculus did illegally use its code.

Oculus code is available to potential VR developers, as well as the Samsung Gear headset. If granted, the injunction would prevent Oculus from being able to sell some games for the Rift or Gear, limiting its potential profits.

Whether the injunction is granted or not, Oculus faces some serious competition.

The Vive is now large enough to be a separate HTC subsidiary. Google launched its Daydream View headset alongside the Daydream platform. Microsoft’s Windows 10 VR headsets will be available next month. Just today, Qualcomm announced its own VR dev kit with fancy eye-tracking technology.

If Oculus is forced to back down from the VR market, one of its competitors might take its place.