PKWARE, Inc.

PKWARE, Inc. is an enterprise software company founded in 1986, by Phil Katz, co-inventor of the ZIP standard. PKWARE provides encryption and data compression software used by thousands of organizations in banking, financial services, healthcare and government. Its ZIP innovations were a rallying point for early online bulletin board system and shareware communities.

History

Patents

Phil Katz was granted a patent in September, 1991, for his efficient search functions used in the PKZIP compression process. In 2001 and 2005, PKWARE was awarded patents for patching technology used within PKZIP products. In 2005, PKWARE was awarded a patent for methods used to manage .ZIP files within the Windows file manager and Outlook. In total PKWARE holds four patents, has over fourteen pending patents and is referenced in over eighty patents.

Products

.ZIP App Note

PKWARE publishes an Application Note on the .ZIP file format. This Application Note ensures continued interoperability of the .ZIP file format for all users, The APPNOTE provides developers a general description and technical details of the .ZIP file storage specification.