Zuckerberg denies stealing Oculus technology to create VR experience

Facebook could face as much as $2 billion in damages if it loses the suit

Facebook, Mark Zukerberg
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has previously said he considers Facebook a technology entity but the social network has faced more questions over the past 18 months about how what it shows on its site affects its roughly 1.8 bn members
IANS New York
Last Updated : Jan 18 2017 | 12:01 PM IST
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has denied the allegations of stealing technology that was used to create the Oculus virtual reality (VR) headset by saying that Oculus did not use the technology it did not own.

"We are highly confident that Oculus products are built on Oculus technology. The idea that Oculus products are based on someone else's technology is just wrong," New York Times quoted Zuckerberg as saying while testifying in a courtroom on Tuesday.

Facebook bought Oculus VR for more than $2 billion in 2014 and the dispute started just after the acquisition when US-based video game publisher ZeniMax Media sued Oculus of stealing important elements of the technology that went into the creation of the headset, the report said.

Facebook could face as much as $2 billion in damages if it loses the suit.

Zuckerberg also admitted that despite all the efforts, his dream of bringing VR to the masses still has not come true.

"I don't think that good virtual reality is fully there yet. It's going to take five or 10 more years of development before we get to where we all want to go," Zuckerberg said.

Meanwhile, a lawyer representing Oculus and Facebook asked Zuckerberg whether he had realised his goal of creating a new computing platform.

"These things end up being more complex than you think up front. If anything, we may have to invest even more money to get to the goals we had than we had thought up front," he replied.

Despite this feud, Facebook may invest more than $3 billion in the next decade to reach its goal of providing hundreds of millions of people with a good virtual reality experience.

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First Published: Jan 18 2017 | 11:59 AM IST

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