Iomega Granted Temporary Restraining Orders and
Preliminary Injunctions Against Nomai and Nomai
Distributors
Business Wire - November 24, 1997 08:30
%IOMEGA IOM %UTAH %COMPUTERS %ELECTRONICS %COMED V%BW P%BW
ROY, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 24, 1997--
Temporary Restraining Orders Against Nomai in U.S. and U.K. Ex Parte Preliminary Injunctions Against Distributors in Germany
Iomega Corp. (NYSE:IOM) announced that on Nov. 20, 1997, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted Iomega a temporary restraining order against Nomai S.A. and its U.S. subsidiary, Nomus Inc. The order restrains Nomai and Nomus from
"making, selling, offering for sale, using, importing, or distributing Nomai's XHD cartridges in the United States which claim on their labeling or packaging that Nomai's XHD cartridges are
compatible Iomega(R) Zip(TM) disks or are compatible with Zip drives or disks." The order also restrains Nomai and Nomus from advertising or publishing such Zip compatibility claims in the United States. Iomega also announced that on Nov. 14, 1997, in Germany, the District Court of Mannheim granted Iomega an ex parte preliminary injunction against Prutting (MediaCom), a distributor of Nomai's XHD disk product. The preliminary injunction prohibits MediaCom from offering, selling or advertising, in Grmany, XHD disks in their current packaging or with any statement that such disks are compatible with Iomega Zip drives or that such disks are for use with Iomega Zip drives. On Nov. 19, 1997, the District Court of Dusseldorf granted Iomega a similar ex parte preliminary injunction against Triangel, another German distributor of XHD disks. In the U.K., Iomega was granted a temporary injunction by the High Court of Justice in London, on Oct. 31, 1997. The injunction prohibits Nomai and its chief executive from manufacturing, selling, importing, advertising or offering for sale any disk claimed by Nomai to be compatible with Zip drives or described as a Zip disk. The reports of two independent laboratories engaged by Iomega to perform comparative testing of the XHD cartridges and Iomega Zip cartridges showed that the XHD cartridges had greater than 50 percent rejection rates in both PC Notebook Zip drives and Macintosh notebook Zip drives. The testing also showed that 25 percent of the randomly selected XHD cartridges tested were inoperable with internal Zip drives, which account for nearly 25 percent of the ten million Zip drives shipped to date. In media reliability and wear testing by one of the independent laboratories, 40 percent of the Zip drives tested with XHD cartridges exhibited head damage that the laboratory concluded will render the drive inoperable. Additionally, one of the tested Zip drives damaged by an XHD cartridge caused unrecoverable data loss not only on the
XHD cartridge that caused the damage, but also on a known good Iomega Zip cartridge subsequently inserted in the drive. "We are committed not only to vigorously enforcing our intellectual property rights," said Kim B. Edwards, Iomega's president and chief executive
officer, "but also to protecting the rights of Zip drive owners. Our customers have a right to be protected from loss of data stored on Zip products and a right not to be misled by claims of Zip compatibility that we believe are false." Iomega Corp. provides personal computer storage solutions that help people manage their computer stuff -- anywhere. These solutions include: Zip drives and disks; Jaz one- and two-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 clik! are trademarks of, Iomega Corp. All other names and trademarks are the
property of their respective owners.
CONTACT: Iomega Corp., Roy
Susan T. Stillings, 801/778-4668
E-mail: stilling@iomega.com
Tyler Thatcher, 801/778-4362
E-mail: thatcher@iomega.com |
