The bitter storage patents dispute between French based Nomai SA and Iomega Corp drew nearer a conclusion today when the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted Iomega a temporary restraining order against Nomai and its US subsidiary, Nomus Inc. The order prevents Nomai from claiming that its XHD cartridges are compatible with Iomega Zip drives or disks. Two independent labs retained by Iomega Corp to test the disputed disk’s claims reported that the XHD cartridges showed serious incompatibilities resulting in loss of data in about 25% of the randomly selected XHD cartridges. Iomega originally accused Nomai of Zip drive patent infringement back in May of this year (CI No 3,155). Nomai responded by filing a complaint for declaratory relief against Iomega Corp in November (CI No 3,276). Iomega Corp has recently won similar injunctions in both the UK and German courts.
