History (1997): SyQuest Vs. Nomaï, Iomega Vs. Nomaï, and Now Iomega Vs. SyQuest

All the major players of the 3.5-inch removable rigid disk drive market are now in one kind of legal conflict or another, each accusing the other of copying its inventions.

First there was SyQuest, which has not stopped harassing Nomaï for years, and which will not let up, accusing Nomaï of copying its magnetic disk cartriges.

Then Iomega took on Nomaï as well for trying to manufacture Zip-compatible cartridges.

Finally, Iomega is hoping to whittle down the remains of SyQuest by taking it to court, with the official charge “infringement of Iomega patents for inventions used in both its Jaz and Zip products,” in U.S. Disctrict Court for the District of Delaware. The complaint also alleges that “SyQuest caused unfair competition through the infringement of Iomega’s JET trademarks.” For the technical accusation, there may be some discussion on a possible illegal use by SyQuest of 2 of Iomega’s patents, one dealing with the R/W protection scheme and the other the design of Jaz cartridges.

By chancing upon the reasons for this lawsuit, we discovered that Iomega used the word “JET.” In fact, by surfing at random through Iomega’s website, the word appears to designate Jaz JET host adapters or JET drivers. Who knew this? We have not found one instance of the word JET in the Utah-based company’s press communique announcement since the beginning of the year. Not to mention that between JET and SyJet, there is a world of difference. It’s true that if SyQuest had called its device IoJet, we could have accepted this fact. But in that case why not just take on the entire aeronautic world that also uses (or abuses) the word jet, and so forbid any and everyone from suffering from jet lag, etc.

We expected a slightly more mature attitude from Iomega.

Responding to this patent suit from the latter firm, SyQuest’s president and CEO Ed Harper observed: “We believe this claim is without merit. This represents probably an attempt by lomega to move this battle from the marketplace to the courtroom.”

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 116 on September 1997 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.