Cipher Data Seeks Injunction on Rival

SAN DIEGO — Cipher Data Products of San Diego has filed a motion in federal court for a preliminary injunction against rival tape-drive manufacturer Archive Corp. of Costa Mesa, an outgrowth of the two companies’ patent validity and infringement battle, Archive said in a prepared statement Tuesday.

If approved, the motion, which Archive said it had expected, would preclude Archive from selling a model of 5.25-inch tape drives until the patent dispute is settled in court. A trial date has been tentatively set for May 1989.

Cipher Data and Archive officials were unavailable for comment late Tuesday afternoon.

Archive is the leader in the 5.25-inch tape-drive market, accounting for more than 20% of the drives’ $400 million annual sales. Cipher and Wangtek are next with market shares that were estimated in June at 15% each, according to Freeman Associates, a Santa Barbara market research firm.

Loading Technology

The dispute centers on loading technology that enables tape cassettes to be inserted sideways into the tape drives. Cipher’s claims to the technology are covered in patents awarded to the company in 1986, Cipher has said.

Cipher Data’s position in the dispute was bolstered in June, observers said, when it settled a similar suit against Wangtek at terms favorable to Cipher Data. In May, a U. S. federal court in San Francisco upheld the validity of Cipher Data’s patent dealing with the loading technology and each of Cipher’s eight claims against Wangtek.