Judge denies Oculus request to dismiss ZeniMax suit

A federal judge denied a request by virtual reality company Oculus and parent company Facebook to dismiss a lawsuit filed by ZeniMax Media claiming infringement over trademarks tied to the Rift VR headset.

ZeniMax -- the parent company of video game publisher Bethesda Softworks -- accuses Oculus and founder Palmer Luckey of "unlawful exploitation" of trade secrets and other information related to technology used in the Oculus Rift headset. Zenimax claims they created key technology used in the Rift.

The lawsuit names Oculus, Luckey and Facebook, which acquired Oculus for $2 billion in March 2014, according to court orders obtained by Paste BN.

The lawsuit focuses on John Carmack, co-founder of studio id Software, which was acquired by Zenimax in 2009. Carmack worked closely with Luckey on a virtual reality headset prior to the launch of the Oculus Kickstarter campaign. In August 2013, Carmack joined Oculus as chief technology officer yet remained with id until November.

ZeniMax claims the company made "multiple requests" for compensation for the use of its technology but never reached a deal.

When the lawsuit was filed in May 2014, both Carmack and Oculus denied the ZeniMax claims. "Oculus uses zero lines of code that I wrote while under contract to Zenimax," Carmack wrote on Twitter.

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.