Facebook's Oculus fined $500 million for infringing copyright

Facebook and its virtual reality business Oculus must pay $500 million (£390 million) after a legal battle over allegations they stole another firm’s technology.

A jury found that Oculus, bought by Facebook for $2 billion in 2014, used computer code belonging to video game developer ZeniMax in its Rift headset.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg testified in the case, which centred on former ZeniMax employee John Carmack’s move to Oculus as technology chief in 2013.

Zuckerberg said ZeniMax’s claims were “false”, but the jury found Oculus violated non-disclosure agreements, infringed ZeniMax’s copyright and improperly used its trademarks.

It did, however, reject allegations that Oculus stole trade secrets. Co-founders Brendan Iribe and Palmer Luckey were ordered to pay $200 million of the $500 million.

Oculus said it was disappointed by a few aspects of the verdict but was “undeterred”. “Oculus products are built with Oculus technology.”

The decision came just before Facebook reported fourth-quarter profit more than doubled to $3.6 billion and said it remains on track to hit two billion users by the end of June. Zuckerberg added the social network is focusing on creating original videos, which could threaten Google’s YouTube and Netflix.