Lexmark Wins Injunction in Toner Cartridge Suit 557
goingincirclez writes "Cnet reports that Lexmark has won an injunction against Static Control Components, Inc., which effectively prohibits the manufacture of recycled / third party toner cartidges. Slashdot covered the initial filing of the suit. SCC also has a rebuttal site that definitely warrants checking out. I would like to think that other printer manufacturers won't follow suit, but I'm not that naive. Better start your trust fund for ink cartridges."
Good News for Dell (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Yes, Windows is a common term (Score:3, Informative)
Get it from the EU then... (Score:4, Informative)
Dow Jones Business News
EU Parliament Bans Proprietory Printer Cartridge Policy
Wednesday December 18, 10:40 am ET
BRUSSELS -(Dow Jones)- In a blow to Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ - News; HP) and other printer companies, the European Parliament voted unanimously Wednesday to ban them from forcing consumers to buy manufacturers' own-brand ink refills.
The printer-ink provision was included in a last-minute amendment to a bill requiring manufacturers of electronic goods to pay for recycling them. Conservatives supported it as a consumer-friendly action, while environmentalists welcomed it as a green measure.
"Consumers who are fed up with being ripped off when they need to replace the ink cartridges in their computer printers will be pleased with the requirement," said Robert Goodwill, a Conservative member of the parliament who sponsored the amendment.
The bill comes into effect in 2006.
Many color printers cost about EUR100 to buy, but replacement cartridges run as much as EUR40 each, Goodwill said. Companies have sprung up offering cheaper cartridge ink refills. But Goodwill said manufacturers had limited the use of the refills by installing computer chips on their original cartridges.
"When the cartridges are refilled, the printer comes up with an error message and many users are forced to buy expensive new cartridges from manufacturers," Goodwill said.
The practice may be harmful to the environment, as it limits recycling, and to consumers, but it has been beneficial to printer companies. H-P's ink and toner refills bring in about $10 billion annually, or about 15% of its annual revenue.
H-P dominates the market. According to consulting company CAP, H-P now has 44% of the $11 billion West-European market for printer ink, with Seiko Corp.'s Epson (J.SKO) unit with about 25%, Canon Inc. (CAJ) with 18% and Lexmark International Inc. (NYSE:LXK - News) with 10%.
Suppliers who refill ink cartridges or sell knockoffs have about one-fourth of the market, according to CAP. But their share is static.
Their complaints have attracted the attention of European Union Competition Commissioner Mario Monti. In May, he said regulators were looking into possible anticompetitive behavior by some printer makers.
"There's probably a case here for us," Monti said at the time. Since then, the Commission has been silent on the issue.
Complaints from refillers also attracted parliamentarian Goodwill. He visited the local Cartridge World shop in York and came away determined to insert the amendment into the larger bill about recycling of electronics goods. He and a Green parliamentarian first inserted the amendment back in October.
But the German government supported the printer companies' attempts to remove it this week. Bargaining between parliamentarians and governments went until 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, Goodwill said.
"The Germans wanted to defend their chemical companies which make this ink for the printer companies," he said. "When we threatened to hold up the entire recycling bill, they finally dropped their objections."
The printer companies still can appeal to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. H-P declined to comment. Spokespeople for Canon and Lexmark said they were unaware of the issue.
-By William Echikson, Dow Jones Newswires; 32-2-285-0134; william.echikson@ dowjones.com
Dow Jones Newswires
12-18-02 1040ET
Re:Not sure this is the wrong decision (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Wish HP would create a universal cartridge (Score:3, Informative)
HP's system isn't all that unreasonable, since the ink tanks are held in vacuum seal and thus don't get any exposure to outside air, so the ink doesn't dry out. This is a problem with Canon's ink cartridges, since the ink is held inside a suspension sponge.
The nozzles in the printhead get dried out over time, which means that when you use up the ink inside a cartridge and try to refill it, you're using a crippled printhead. Nozzles get clogged from air exposure to residue ink after use, and pickup of contaminant particles (airborne and paper dust). I believe the average of clogged print nozzles in a printhead when you exhaust the ink supply in HP's traditional inkjet cartridges is around 25%.
Of course, the distribution of that can be rather uneven, which means that you might have one color that barely prints, or one edge of the printhead that doesn't print properly.
So, in principle, yes, a cartridge should just hold ink, but realistically speaking, HP's system ensures better printing quality.
Keep the chip, replace the toner (Score:5, Informative)
I subvert Lexmark's plans by refilling my old toner carts with stuff from this vendor [tonerrefillkits.com]. While it's somewhat more difficult a process than just installing a new cart, I save over $150 with each refill.
Not affiliated with TonerRefillKits.com, just a happy customer. Don't be put off by their crappy website - the stuff ships out quick, is fairly priced, and works as advertised.
Good riddance (Score:3, Informative)
As an "IT Manager" I get 2-10 calls a day from people trying to sell me toner cartridges. The usual pitch goes something like this:
"Hello Mr. Smith, my name is Todd and I'm calling from ABC products. We develop our own high tech toner cartridges and they are the best on the market. What I'd like to do is send you a cartridge; at no cost to you, so can you can see our quality product."
I know of a client who actually went along with it, and they were shipped a pallet of these things and billed for like $2,100.
Anyway...I have always found that genuine HP cartridges are the best value. We buy so many of them, we only pay a few bucks more than the imitations. Plus, even my users can tell when we've put a imitation cartridge in, instead of the genuine HP toner.
I hope Howard Coble is happy... (Score:3, Informative)
The lead author of the DMCA, Rep. Howard Coble [house.gov] is from North Carolina, where Static Control Components is located. It was almost even more ironic, since SCC is located in the 2nd Congressional district [house.gov], just about 10 miles east of Coble's own district (the 6th [weblogs.com]).
I hope the jerkoff really hears about it from his constituents... (I live in the N.C. 10th district; his office ignored me the last two times I called to chat.)
-FP
Clarification (Score:3, Informative)
These printers are apparently also available without the chip, but at a higher initial cost. This allows the buyer to obtain their ink from anyone and gives Lexmark a one-time profit.
So if my understanding is correct, Lexmark is only protecting their sales plan for these printers. They are not insinuating that third-parties should not be able to distribute their ink for Lexmark devices, rather, they want to prevent third-parties from manufacturing ink for THESE devices.
I am no fan of the DMCA, but I can certainly understand Lexmark's position in this matter. If the buyer purchased the printer at a lower initial cost with the understanding that they would need to recycle their cartridges through Lexmark, then I don't see why another company should be allowed to interfere by circumventing the agreement.
Then again, was there really an "agreement" with the consumer?
Re:Not sure this is the wrong decision (Score:3, Informative)
Well I sell/upgrade/repair computers and people ask me all the time "What is the best __________ ?" When they ask *ME* about printers I tell them not to buy Lexmark. I think they are junk anyway. This is just one more issue.
Re:Beter yet... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Beter yet... (Score:3, Informative)
As funny as this is, there is a point to be made here. Roughly a year ago I bought a $300 laser printer made by Brother. (it's $250 today) I'm still on the original cartridge. I'm probably would have bought at least 2 or 3 ink replacement cartridges for my old inkjet by now. Frankly, I don't like futzing with that. Sometimes the ink just evaporates.
Right now it costs about $60 to replace the cartridge. $85 gets me a cartridge with double the capacity. $180 gets me 6x the capacity of the original cartridge.
That may be a little steep of an investment, but imagine buying the $250 printer + $180 drum (after the original cartridge is empty a year or two later) and never having to worry about it again.
Ah those are the daaaaaaaaaaaaays.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re::( Grr (Score:2, Informative)
They don't need to. There's been long-standing accusations that the ink cartridge manufacturers don't completely fill the cartridges they sell, so the ink doesn't last as long and the consumer has to buy refills more frequently.
Cheap inkjet refills from www.inksell.com (Score:2, Informative)
They have a kit for $9.95 that has enough ink for two full refills. Your future refills are only $2.95 per ink bottle (once you've got the kit).
Takes 5 minutes or less to do the refill. The only difficult part is breaking off the top of the color cartridge but they supply a tool for that.
I've been using the same ink cartridge for about 6 months and I do a lot of printing. I've probably refilled it like 4 or 5 times now and it still works like a champ.
I don't have to feel guilty about printing full color photos anymore.
Here is the number to the corporate office! (Score:2, Informative)
1. Ask for the president's office, and when connected, tell them that you refuse to do business with a company that is using a dubious law to squash competition!
2. Ask them why they don't feel that their product is a good enough value, that it will sell, without doing business in this manner!
3. Ask them what the procedure is for returning your Lexmark printer to them, since they did not make you aware, when you purchased the printer, that you would be forbidden buy law to use 3rd party replacement ink!
So boycott Lexmark (Score:3, Informative)
Buy from some company who are trying to produce products which will reduce your costs.
The Kyocera ecosys printers spring to mind.
http://www.kyocera.com/
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Tell the Copyright Office What You Think (Score:2, Informative)
Tell them what you think at http://www.copyright.gov/1201/comment_forms/index
Obligatory Laser printer plug (Score:3, Informative)
Save your color printouts for an inkjet and try a laserjet for everything else! You'll save money in the long run.
Re:This is going to get pathetic (Score:3, Informative)
Interestingly, we sell an HP color inkjet printer for 76$, and we sell the ink cartriges for that printer for 89$ (this is the price for both color and black). We have the same margin on all 3 products. Lexmark does the same exact thing, but we don't sell their printers, just the inks.
We have a guy that comes around and picks up our empty inks that people bring back for us to recycle. We can get 1-5 dollars each (model, brand dependant). They ship them to africa to be refilled, and then resold later in asia. One reason is because of this copyright BS lexmark is pushing on everyone.
Contrary to popular belief, the circuitry and printhead on the cartrige itself is what costs the most. The guy we sell our used inks to can get up to $10-$15 on some models, and the people refilling them are still making a profit even after shipping them across the world, refilling, cleaning, and reselling them for less than new. I have personally refilled my black cartriges for less than $5 each refill, and only after a few refills does the print quality go down (due to worn out print head)