Syquest Technology Inc has reached a settlement with Nomai SA, the French company it sued at the beginning of this year for copyright and trademark infringement, breach of contract and unfair competition (CI No 3,097). Under the terms of the agreement, Nomai has been granted a royalty-bearing license to produce 3 inch and 5 inch replacement cartridges for SyQuest removable disk drives, but, as part of the settlement, Nomai will begin to sell SyQuest products on a private label basis. This relationship with Nomai will mark the beginning of a new era of co-operation between our two companies, and open new sales channels, enthused SyQuest chairman Ed Marinaro. SyQuest got very close to acquiring Nomai late in 1996, but changed its mind abruptly at the last minute. Meanwhile, all around the battle continues. Nomai is in the middle of a similar legal tassle with Iomega Corp after announcing its intention to enter the Zip drive compatible media market (CI No 3,155, 3,246). The Zip market looks a far more lucrative bet for aftermarket companies, and Nomai even acquired high-capacity manufacturing facilities in France to make sure it could handle the expected volumes. And while this is all going on, Iomega is of course suing SyQuest, claiming its products infringe Iomega patents (CI No 3,314).
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