ITC Ruling on EPSON cartridge patent in the US

[kelly_flanigan1]

Companies that infinge on the Epson patents can still sell the 3rd party cartridges; IF they settle with Epson with a fee paid per cartridge. <BR><BR>Its like some yoyo steals you cool photo/image; and you then settle and allow them to pay you with a fee thats reasonable per image printed. Its done all the time with patents, a even copyrights too. <BR><BR>With the Kodapak / Instamatic 126 camera system of 1963; Kodak licensed the cartridge and got a royality. With the 1965 Super-8 cine "instamatic type" cartridge; Kodak got a royalty per camera sold. In both cases the system had patented cartidges.<BR><BR> The 3rd party refillers who dont want to pay up are thus legally forced not to sell the illegal items in the USA.<BR><BR> From a consumer standpoint one wants goods to cost nothing with your gizmos made on mars with zero labor costs; the process going on until you own job is in danger. Then you want some legal controlls; since you want your job and your companies moat protected; its long investments in time and inventions not breached by illegal practices.<BR><BR>Its easy to want the other chaps investments ruined; it hits home abit once your own images are stolen; you own job lost; the value of your investments ruined by illegal practices.

[lighttrekker]

No matter how you look at it, this sucks for the consumer. I'm all for intellectual property protection, copyrights, and patents, but not to the extent where they effectively eliminate competition and choices for the consumer.

 

FWIW, I received this from Jon Cone on the 12th:

 

Dear Piezography Customer,

 

ACTIONS BY EPSON DIRECTLY AFFECT YOUR PURCHASE OF DESKTOP PRODUCTS IN THE USA.

 

In 2005, EPSON began a series of lawsuits against manufacturers of desktop cartridges that EPSON claimed infringed EPSON patents. EPSON won by jury or by default in several of these lawsuits and have been awarded broad patent rights. The end result of that is an ITC directive that is explained by EPSON here: http://itc.epson.com/index.html.

 

On October 19, 2007 the U.S. International Trade Commission ("ITC") issued a Final Determination that found that all of the more than 750 accused cartridges for EPSON inkjet printers infringe one or more of eleven EPSON patents. The ITC issued a General Exclusion Order prohibiting all importers from importing infringing cartridges and Cease and Desist Orders that prohibit the named respondents from selling cartridges imported before the ITC Order. The ITC also ordered a bond of $13.60 per imported cartridge for imports during the 60 day Presidential Review period.

 

Necessarily, we have stopped importing desktop cartridges and we have only a small remaining inventory for our desktop users in the USA, which we are closing out at half-price to rid our existing inventories. You can look at our close out inventory by clicking here. Desktop users outside the USA can continue to buy our cartridges as the ITC ruling only affects the USA.

 

We can only make the suggestion to our desktop users that they immediately investigate refilling their carts, using bulk ink delivery systems and bottles, or upgrading to a medium or large format printer. To hoard remaining supplies is not an option that will allow you to use our products in the long-term, and you really need to act now in order to insure that you have a method of dispensing our inks into your printers. There are many sources for refilling supplies and instructions, as well as chip resetters, and bulk ink systems.

 

If you are a large format user, EPSON has made it clear that they intend to prove that third-party cartridges infringe their large format cart patents in current litigation. There is no way to know the success of this until the outcome that may be 12 months away or shorter or longer. We can only make the suggestion to you to invest in lifetime refill carts.

 

 

A CALL TO ACTION.

 

This is of course alarming news for customers of any third party ink cartridges. We have been in touch with our Congressman and Senators, who are trying to intercede on our behalf with the President of the USA before he signs this into law. We have learned from our Congressman that President Bush has given that authority over to his International Trade Representative, Susan Schwab.

 

The ITC's Final Determination will enter into effect unless there are "compelling policy reasons for disapproval," which will be determined by United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab in the coming days:

 

Susan Schwab

Office of the United States Trade Representative

600 17th Street, N.W.

Washington, DC 20508

United States of America

 

The phone number for the trade office is 202-395-3063

 

Please reference International Trade Commission matter 337-TA-565

 

We would ask you to call or write to US Trade Representative Susan Schwab. Let her know how you would be affected if she allows the ITC's determination to go forward. For example, there are not any non-infringing cartridges available to us because of the broad patents and the way that EPSON has designed their printers. If you are not able to purchase cartridges and you are affected, you should communicate how this affects you. If you do not have an alternative, and your livelihood is affected, these are important issues to mention. In the entire history of the ITC, only five rulings have not been approved. We want to believe that this will be the sixth. But it needs your help. We have done all that we can at this point. Please do not misunderstand that we think patents are unimportant or should not be protected. Rather, we side with current European Union thought that is modeled after the US Sherman Anti-Trust Act, that a product should not be given a monopoly if patents are created to prevent competition. While anti-trust and environmental law is strengthening in the EU, it is being terribly eroded in the USA. The USA does not have "free-trade" and that is often surprising to Europeans who remember that we invented that notion.

 

 

DESKTOP USERS ARE IMMEDIATELY AFFECTED: CONSIDER BUYING A BULK INKS KIT NOW.

 

Prior to Dec 19, you may be able to do things that will allow for you to continue your relationship with Piezography products for the desktop printers. This ruling only affects desktop cartridges and we only supply desktop cartridges for the following EPSON printers: 1160, 1200, 1280, R200 family, R800/R1800, 2100/2200, 2400.

 

You can move from desktop cartridges for your printer to a bulk ink system that allows you to feed it from bottled ink. Act soon, as it is believed that all exporters have ceased their shipments into the USA awaiting outcome of the Presidential Review. You can find these by clicking here. We will be adding more large format refill carts as they become available and eliminating desktop systems as inventories become depleted. The reason is that we will always sell at least bottled inks into the USA. Once you have a CIS system, you can purchase a starter system of inks with a discount of 15%. The coupon code is [ PIEZO ] and the savings is 15% for Piezography K6/7 bottles by clicking here and PiezoTone bottles which you can find here. You enter this code into the shopping cart during the checkout procedure. This 15% off code is good until Dec. 19.

 

 

EPSON HAS THEIR SIGHTS ON LARGE FORMAT CARTS.

 

EPSON is now in court with large format cartridge manufacturers. We have a refill cartridge system for the 4800, 7800, 9800, 3000, 7000, 7500 and Roland printers. We will soon have one for your 4000, 7600, 9000, 9500 and 9600 printers. You can expect Epson to attempt to shut out third party large format cartridges in the near future, and you do have time. But you can also begin saving your ink costs by buying in bulk and helping the environment by not throwing away carts. We have lifetime refill cartridges for Ultrachrome K3 printers including new ConeColor replacement color inks. You can use these refill carts for Piezography inks in your K3 printer. Those are available by clicking here.

 

 

USERS OUTSIDE THE USA: HOW ARE YOU AFFECTED?

 

These actions by EPSON only affect cartridges coming into the USA. It does not affect our ability to sell outside the USA. We have a growing network of dealers outside the USA. We also have cartridge fulfillment facilities outside the USA so we do not need to import cartridges in order to fill them for EU and other countries. However, we will not be able to sell desktop cartridges even to our non-USA customers. Desktop cartridges are being closed-out.

 

WHAT'S NEXT AMERICA?

 

Perhaps, those that were using third-party solutions will become the nexus for change in the USA in terms of the environment. It?s alarming to find out that InfoTrends just published data that 80% of all new cartridges sold in the USA go into landfill. It is apparent how few EPSON carts are being recycled because of the difficulty in recycling EPSON manufactured carts. The third-party cartridges which were being sold for EPSON printers, and are now eliminated, were refill friendly cartridges. 10% of the oil being imported into the USA comes in the form of the plastic used in the US$32Billion dollar market of inkjet and laser cartridges. All that plastic is piling up in our landscape, and will take up to 1,000 years to bio-degrade. Please consider bulk ink delivery products as soon as possible. There is information directly on our website. You will be helping yourself and the ecology which you live with.

 

We will keep you posted.

 

Thanks and best regards,

 

Jon Cone

Vermont PhotoInkjet

[Brad_]

>>> " ... EPSON won by jury or by default in several of these lawsuits and have been

awarded broad patent rights. ... On October 19, 2007 the U.S. International Trade

Commission ("ITC") issued a Final Determination that found that all of the more than 750

accused cartridges for EPSON inkjet printers infringe one or more of eleven EPSON patents.

..."

 

Jury decisions, case defaults, and ITC rulings. The system works, time to move on...

[lighttrekker]

"Jury decisions, case defaults, and ITC rulings. The system works, time to move on..."

 

I guess the question becomes to move on where, Brad? Affordable and/or practicable printing with Epson printers has suddenly become problematic. OK, for color prints, buy Epson cartridges, as the ruling mandates for us in the US. Any suggestions for a reasonable B&W solution?

[Brad_]

>>> OK, for color prints, buy Epson cartridges, as the ruling mandates for us in the US.

Any suggestions for a reasonable B&W solution?

 

Also Epson cartridges. I get superb results with those on my 4800 printer - more than 95%

of what I print is B&W.

[kelly_flanigan1]

The best thing a person could want is to have a secure government job not associated with an real world manufacturing costs, patents, layoffs etc. Then one could vote to all patents and copyrights revoked; and enjoy cheaper goods as a consumer. One could just cut the controls enough so the system fails as one dies; and then let private companies go bankrupt. It alarming to see folks being anti patent; and wanting to destroy manufacturing. It shows basic selfishness; a lack of concern for manufacturing and product development; and folks jobs they work hard at. The third party vendors CAN play ball if they want to pay up for their illegal goods; goods barred from being imported by the law. Part of having a patent is fighting off the folks who are cheaters; this has a cost too; passed on to you the consumer.

[lighttrekker]

Thank you for the suggestion, Brad. I wasn't too happy with the R1800 B&W output until I started using the Piezography inks. I will evaluate the 4800.

 

****

 

Kelly, I infer from your post that you believe the patent system works well, and those who suggest making changes to strike a different balance between consumer interests (i.e., choices) and patent and intellectual property owners will somehow destroy free enterprise. Innovation never arises from a monopoly. Patents were originally devised to provide stimulus for innovation, but when the pendulum swings too far the other way by allowing patent holders to squash competition, we all lose out.

 

In my experience with intellectual property issues and new technology development, the system in the US is seriously broken, particularly since the USPTO was re-vamped some years back. The debate rages on, but suffice to say it's the kind of system that can allow rampant abuses. Gary Reback wrote an interesting -- and alarming -- editorial in Forbes several years ago (http://www.forbes.com/asap/2002/0624/044.html) that describes the situation very well with an example of IBM versus Sun Microsystems.

 

Here's a hypothetical: Just imagine what life could be like if a printer/ink/paper manufacturer, in an attempt to force us all to use their papers exclusively, sued the other paper vendors by claiming the paper feed mechanism was patented, and the other papers infringed on the patent by being compatible with it. In today's patent environment, it's not much of a stretch.

[Brad_]

>>> I will evaluate the 4800.

 

Today, i would consider the less costly 3800 (unless roll paper feed is required) - same ink

and Advanced B&W mode (ABW). And there's also the 2400 - at a narrower max print width

and higher ink cost with the smaller carts. Same ink...

[lee_sealy]

I'm an ink dealer, www.jascoink.com. Refill kits for Epson OEM's will be hitting the market heavily as the ITC ruling begins to hurt the pockets of ink cartridge distributors in the US. Epson cartridges have been refillable for quite some time, there has just been more profit and convenience for the consumer to use Chinese made "refillables".

 

I think that everyone that prints photos whether for personal hobby or profession, should take a good hard look at the HP Designjet line up. I have a 130 and use a CIS System. However, the OEM carts are easily refillable and hold an ounce to two ounces of ink each!

 

That's my two cents.