The storage wars have surfaced again, as Iomega Corp said Wednesday the preliminary injunction it had been awarded in June prohibiting French rival Nomai SA, from duplicating the shape of Iomega’s Zip cartridge was lifted on December 12 by a panel of appellate court judges in Paris. Iomega is evaluating whether to exercise its right to appeal. The June injunction was based on an earlier design of Nomai’s XHD 100 cartridge, which was then redesigned before its commercial introduction in France in September. As part of the latest decision, Nomai’s request to cancel earlier seizures conducted by Iomega against Nomai in France was denied for a second time. In September, Iomega filed a second action in France with respect to Nomai’s modified cartridge. A hearing in that case was held on November 28 and a court decision is anticipated in late January. Iomega has five remaining preliminary injunctions against Nomai and its distributors in the UK and Germany, and a temporary restraining order against Nomai, and its US subsidiary, in the US. Iomega first brought the action against Nomai in May (CI No 3,155). Iomega has maintained throughout that the Nomai cartridges are not fully compatible with its Zip products, routinely lose data and have the potential to damage Zip drives.
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