Epson sues many more ink cartridge resellers ...

http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/02/22/epson/index.php?lsrc=mwrss

Epson sues many more ink cartridge resellers
By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

Seiko Epson Corp. has filed more lawsuits against companies making or selling third-party ink cartridges that it believes infringe upon its intellectual patents.

The company filed a complaint last week with the U.S. International Trade Commission against 24 companies that manufacture, import, or distribute aftermarket ink cartridges for sale in the U.S., the Japanese company said on Tuesday. The complaint seeks to ban the companies from importing or selling the cartridges in question in the U.S. In conjunction with this case the company also filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Portland against the same companies seeking damages for the alleged intellectual property infringement.

Epson has also kicked off a patent infringement case against the English High Court against Medea International Ltd., it said Wednesday. As in the U.S. cases Epson is alleging that ink cartridges imported by Medea International, which are sold in the U.K. under the Inkrite Photo Plus brand, infringe upon its patents.

The case against the U.K. company was brought after it began promoting a spongeless valve design in its cartridges as being "radically different and unique." In fact, the design is similar to a patented Epson technology and the lawsuit was brought "to set the record straight," Epson said in a statement.

Epson fought similar battles in 2005.

In April it filed lawsuits in the same Portland court against Armor SA, of Nantes, France, and Multi-Union Trading Co. Ltd., of Hong Kong. The latter ended with a settlement that saw 75 of Multi-Union's cartridge models barred from being imported and sold in the U.S.

In June the U.K.'s Environmental Business Products Ltd. said it had stopped importing and supplying Epson-compatible printer cartridges as a result of an out of court settlement between it and the Japanese company and in October another British company, CybaHouse Ltd., agreed to stop selling and importing Epson-compatible cartridges as part of a settlement with Epson.

Epson is setting themselves for a class action lawsuit.

By going after aftermarket inks and not fxing the problem with clogging. The fact even with espon inks printers still clog frequently and the cleaning processing using quite a lot ink, some lawyer out there is going to accuse Espon of ripping off it's customers.

Epson inks only source for printers + printers clog + cleaning uses more ink = profit for Epson

Epson fix clogging problem then sue aftermarket ink producer

(nt) means "no text in the body of the post." But this is impossible on DPreview, because it will refuse to accept posts unless there is some text in the body. No matter how worthless and off topic the text is. It would be better if the DPreview software understood that (nt) meant "no body text."

Wouldn't it?

I don't think that Epson is saying people can't manufacture 3rd party ink, the issue is patent infringement. Any company that spends a great deal of money on R&D and is granted a patent on that technolgy will try to protect that investment.

I don't fault Epson at all in doing this.

--
Mike

It is not about fault it is about appearances.

It looks like they are making at product the forces consumers to spend more than they have to in order to maintain the product.

Like if Exxon made cars, they would get 5 miles to the gallon and refused to run properly if you used Mobil gas.

Actually, Exxon and Mobil are one and the same company (ExxonMobil).

But still, ExxonMobil cars wouldn't run on Shell or BP gas.

Anthony Battles said:

Like if Exxon made cars, they would get 5 miles to the gallon and
refused to run properly if you used Mobil gas.

Click to expand...

You are making a good point....

but the settlements of the disputes are that the importer stops importing, not that they have to pay a royalty to Epson. So in effect Epson is removing competition to their inks.

And another point - I believe that Epson actually design they printers, software and cartridges to make it difficult to use 3rd party ink.

There is a difference between recommending their inks and making it difficult if you don't.

Joe

Coach M said:

I don't think that Epson is saying people can't manufacture 3rd
party ink, the issue is patent infringement. Any company that
spends a great deal of money on R&D and is granted a patent on that
technolgy will try to protect that investment.

I don't fault Epson at all in doing this.

--
Mike

Click to expand...

Joe,

That does change the picture a great deal. You made some very valid points.

From a marketing perspective, the royalty route would have been the better solution. With the added cost, 3rd party inks might not be as attractive.

I recall a post made several months ago, but I can't remember who made it or the exact details. It could have been Neil or even MR. Well whoever it was took a tour of either an HP or Epson ink plant. When they saw what was involved to produce the inks, he said he would never question the cost of OEM inks again. My apologies to the poster if I summarized his post incorrectly.
--
Mike

Your subject is so long we could not see it anyway

--
Aaron Winters

Ever heard that old saying 'You may win the battle but lose the war' ? I am going to think hard before I buy another Epson printer again. If the OEM cartridges were better & cheaper there would be no need for 3rd party inks !

Keith-C

The UK case may make some sense (sponge-less design is an actual patented technology), who knows about the US case. If they remove all the aftermarket cartridges, then they would risk losing customers.

It seems like companies can’t make money selling printers any more, so you have to sell overpriced consumables. I doubt that they are selling at a loss yet (like video game consoles), but the companies sure are acting like they are.

if Epson genuine inks don't clogged the print head, but they do.

In two years of use, I had used nothing but Epson ink. Now, I wish I had used something else. I thought I was paying premium price for keeping my printer head from clogging. It's a cheap price to pay if it works the way Epson says it does. If Epson wants to keep its customers as ink buying customers first thing they should think is to make the ink that works without harming the print head. If that's not totally possible, make the head serviceable. Epson print head is not removable like Canon print head, which makes it harder to use cleaning agent and pressured air.

Suing other ink makers is not going to win back the customers already had enough of Epson because of clogging problem.

--
http://sitekreator.com/allgoo19

There may be a solution to all these clogging problems - the new Canon Pixma Pro 9000.

It uses ChromaLife100 inks. These are dye inks, therefore less likely to clogg, and have (?) better life expectancy.

Joe

allgoo19 said:

if Epson genuine inks don't clogged the print head, but they do.

In two years of use, I had used nothing but Epson ink. Now, I wish
I had used something else. I thought I was paying premium price for
keeping my printer head from clogging. It's a cheap price to pay if
it works the way Epson says it does. If Epson wants to keep its
customers as ink buying customers first thing they should think is
to make the ink that works without harming the print head. If
that's not totally possible, make the head serviceable. Epson print
head is not removable like Canon print head, which makes it harder
to use cleaning agent and pressured air.

Suing other ink makers is not going to win back the customers
already had enough of Epson because of clogging problem.

--
http://sitekreator.com/allgoo19

Click to expand...

I'm leaning toward that way. Not to the high end printers but not to the low end, just basic printer that lasts. Some peole say the printer are cheap enough to be disposable but the very idea makes me sick to my stomach. I'm willing to pay a premium for that(in the reasonable range). I don't think I'm the only one thinks this way.

For the printer makers point, what's good if the printers break down so easily that the customers stop buying inks where they make the most profit?

===================================

Joe Franek said:

There may be a solution to all these clogging problems - the new
Canon Pixma Pro 9000.
It uses ChromaLife100 inks. These are dye inks, therefore less
likely to clogg, and have (?) better life expectancy.

Joe

Click to expand...

--
http://sitekreator.com/allgoo19