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Facebook has lost a court case over the use of virtual reality (VR) technology in the Oculus Rift headsets.

The jury found in favour of ZeniMax, a games developer that claimed Oculus (which was acquired by Facebook in 2014) used some of its computer code whilst developing the headset.

The social network was ordered to pay $500 million (£395 million) at the culmination of the three-week trial in Texas.

Despite being awarded $500m, ZeniMax had originally pushed for $2 billion. Still, the company said it was happy with the result.

(Image: Michael Bowles/Rex Features)

"We are pleased the jury has awarded ZeniMax $500m for defendants' unlawful infringement of our copyrights and trademarks," ZeniMax chief executive Robert Altman said in a statement.

Oculus said it was "disappointed" with the ruling and would appeal against it.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg was called as a witness during the trial and he vigorously defended Oculus.

"Oculus products are based on Oculus technology," he said at the time.

(Image: PA)

"It's pretty common when you announce a big deal that people just come out of the woodwork and claim they own some part of the deal."

He called the idea that there was any stolen computer code inside the Oculus Rift "just wrong".

Facebook recently announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2016. The social network said its net profit more than doubled to $3.6 billion in the quarter.

What's more, it also said it was on track to hit two billion users in the first half of 2017.