Iomega Sues Parasite Nomai!
Tuesday September 30 7:30 AM EDT
Company Press Release
Iomega Files Infringement and Unfair Competition Suit Against Nomai in France
ROY, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 30, 1997--Iomega Corp. (NYSE:IOM) Tuesday filed a complaint, in the District Court in Paris, charging Nomai S.A., with unfair competition, parasitism and violations of Iomega's copyrights, disk design patent and trademarks.
The suit is in response to Nomai's sale in France of its XHD 100 MB Super Floppy diskette, which Nomai claims to be compatible with Iomega's popular Zip drives. The Paris Court has granted an early fixed date hearing on Friday, Nov. 28, 1997, at which time the charges asserted by Iomega will be heard by a panel of three judges.
In addition, Iomega filed a separate complaint today in Paris, claiming that Nomai is infringing on several Iomega patent applications pending in Europe. This separate complaint allows Iomega to seek preliminary injunctive relief once the pending patents have been issued. No hearing date has been set on these separate patent claims.
Iomega has procured and conducted preliminary testing of Nomai XHD 100 MB diskettes. Iomega claims in its suit to have determined that the Nomai XHD diskette falls significantly below Iomega's quality standards for authorized Zip branded disks.
Preliminary testing also indicates that use of the Nomai diskettes in Iomega Zip drives could cause data loss and Zip drive damage. According to the complaint, Iomega's early testing of the Nomai XHD diskette has shown, among other things, the following incompatibility and quality issues:
The Nomai diskette is not compatible with all models of Iomega Zip drives. The media used in the Nomai diskette fails to meet Iomega's quality specifications for use in Zip branded disks produced for Iomega. The construction of the Nomai diskette fails to protect the recording media adequately from contamination and debris. Such contamination is likely, in Iomega's experience, to lead to increased error rates and eventual media damage and/or data
loss. In some cases, the Nomai diskettes have the potential to damage Zip drive recording heads. Damage to the recording heads may also jeopardize the integrity, not only of data stored on Nomai diskettes but also data stored on Iomega authorized Zip disks when subsequently inserted in a damaged Zip drive.
Iomega Corp. provides personal computer storage solutions that help people manage their computer stuff -- anywhere. These solutions include: Zip drives and disks; Jaz one-gigabyte drives and disks; and Ditto tape backup drives and tape cartridges.
Used in homes, business and education, and by creative professionals, Iomega storage solutions are available through computer retail stores, resellers, major distributors and OEMs. The company can be reached at 800/MY-STUFF (800/697-8833), iomega.com and additional Iomega press releases can be accessed through the toll-free fax-back line: (888/88-IOMEGA).
NOTE TO EDITORS: Iomega, Jaz and the Iomega logo are registered trademarks of, and Zip, Ditto, and n-hand are trademarks of, Iomega Corp.
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Contact:
Iomega Corp., Roy
Susan T. Stillings, 801/778-4668
stilling@iomega.com
Laurie Keating, 801/778-3616
keating@iomega.com |
