On February 1, Skadden obtained a $500 million jury verdict on behalf of ZeniMax Media following a three-week trial before Judge James E. Kinkeade of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The trial included testimony by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the parties' five technical experts on computer science and virtual reality technology, and a court-appointed computer crime expert. The damages stem from findings of copyright infringement, breach of a nondisclosure agreement and false designation, and include awards of $300 million against Oculus, $150 million against former Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe and $50 million against Oculus founder Palmer Luckey. The jury also found that Oculus Chief Technology Officer — and former ZeniMax employee — John Carmack was liable for conversion. The verdict is the sixth largest verdict ever awarded for copyright, trademark and/or trade secret claims and the 12th largest intellectual property verdict including patent damages.
The win was profiled in an Am Law Litigation Daily article ("Behind the $500M Curtain: How Skadden Handed Wilkinson Her First Trial Loss," February 5).