He created the format after his company had lawsuits filed against him by Systems Enhancement Associates (SEA) claiming that his archiving products were derivatives of SEA's ARC archiving system.
Формат ZIP был первоначально создан Филом Кацем, основателем компании PKWARE, в ответ на правовое преследование компанией Software Enhancement Associates (SEA), защищавшей своё изобретение — формат архивирования ARC.