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ZeniMax sues Samsung over VR technology in Gear goggles

After winning a $500 million judgment against Oculus, ZeniMax goes after the Korean electronics giant.

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Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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ZeniMax alleges the Samsung Gear VR relies on misappropriated technology.

Nate Ralph/CNET

ZeniMax Media, the parent company of hit games such as Doom, Quake and Fallout, has filed a lawsuit against Samsung over use of virtual reality technology in its Gear VR headset.

The lawsuit, coming on the heels of ZeniMax's $500 million judgment against Facebook 's Oculus, alleges Samsung profited from technology developed by ZeniMax and misappropriated by Oculus CTO John Carmack.

ZeniMax sued Oculus and its founder Palmer Luckey in 2014, alleging illegally misappropriating ZeniMax trade secrets relating to virtual reality technology. Carmack was a co-founder of id Software, a game development studio that revolutionized the first-person shooter. ZeniMax bought id Software in 2009, and Carmack left ZeniMax to take the position of Oculus CTO in August 2013.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Dallas federal court, alleges Carmack brought Matt Hooper, an Oculus employee and former id Software employee, into the id Software offices after hours to discuss an "attack plan" for mobile VR work they would undertake at Oculus.

ZeniMax argues that Samsung should have been aware of ZeniMax's 2014 lawsuit against Oculus but "continued to develop the Gear VR with full knowledge of ZeniMax's allegations and without obtaining any right or permission from ZeniMax to use any of its copyrights or other confidential information."

The lawsuit against Samsung seeks damages, profits from the sales of "infringing works" and "use of trade secrets," royalties, injunctive relief and punitive damages.

Oculus helped reignite people's interest in VR and led to a boom in the tech industry. Facebook bought the company for as much as $3 billion in 2014.

Samsung didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

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