U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Lexmark Case

wallykeyster writes " The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected Lexmark's petition for certiorari in its long and bitter battle against North Carolina-based Static Control Components (SCC). For those out of the loop on this one, Lexmark tried to lock in consumers and lock out competition by adding code to their printers and toner cartridges so that only Lexmark toners would work. SSC defeated their monopolist technology and began selling the off-brand chips to aftermarket toner cartridge makers. As discussed here earlier, in mid-February Lexmark was dealt a defeat by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, who denied Lexmark's request for a rehearing. Other related threads here, here, here, here, and here." The story is on the AP Newswire as well.

Make a printer with a large cartidge

[dextroz]

It seems to me that everytime you buy 4 printer cartridges, you've already paid the price for a new printer (inkjets). So why not just build a printer with a really large cartridge size and then expect people to throw the entire printer away. Make the cartidge non-removable of course... but then again I am not in the printer business and last I heard HP is still chugging along...

Re:Lexmark is no Nintendo

[Anonymous Coward]

The scope of the DMCA appears to have been substantially narrowed by a case decided by the Federal Circuit. I'm not a lawyer (2 more months to go), but I think the Chamberlain Group case is a more important decision in terms of DMCA law, than Lexmark. Though the concurrence by Judge Merritt in the 6th Circuit decision in Lexmark goes much farther than the majority opinion did.

The Chamberlain Group, Inc. v. Skylink Technologies, Inc., 381 F.3d 1178 (Fed. Cir. 2004). at Findlaw: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?c ourt=fed&navby=case&no=041118 [findlaw.com]

Lexmark Int'l, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc. at findlaw: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/6th/0354 00p.pdf [findlaw.com]

Re:Disposable printers - the solution?

[Satan Dumpling]

I agree, I love my Canon F60.
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=Mo delDetailAct&fcategoryid=124&modelid=7174 [canon.com]
Lexmarks clog if you look at them funny. My Canon don't. Four separarate cartridges with no electronics in the cartridges, so cheap to replace.

Woo hoo. End the monopoly.

[JustNiz]

Lets just hope this signals the ultimate end of putting chips to artificially limit lifetime and comaptability in ink cartridges.

HP do the same thing just to enable ludicrous overpricing on their ink cartridges. I'd love to see HP get forced to charge fair prices because of now legalised fair competition.

Re:It's my printer, isn't it?

[greed]

But Fram oil filters work on your Ford and his Acura and my Honda. NGK spark plugs work on all of them. I'm able to hook up power to my Garmin GPSes and Cobra CB from the Honda 12V accessory circuit. I can use a ClearView, Rifle or Laminar windshield if I don't like the standard Honda one. I can put a Corbin or Russell seat on it, or a Givi top-box. I can put Mobil, Quaker State, Motul, or many other oils in the engine or final drive. I can put gasoline from any decent refinery into the fuel tank.

In fact, the only thing that is a bit odd is the headlamp bulbs are a little weird; but they are easily adaptable to standard H4 bulbs, so that's no big deal either--and Honda isn't trying to sue anyone for making H4 adapter rings or telling people how to modify the headlamp assembly or an H4 bulb to fit it.

And, finally, I do NOT expect all components from my older Honda (VF700C) to fit the new one (ST1100A); even wearables--I can't use the same brake pads, oil filter, fuel filter, water thermostat, fan thermostat, cylinder head gaskets, valve shims, and so on.

I also can't use ink tanks from my Epson Stylus Color 740 in my Stylus Photo R200.

But I can use the same paper....

Why is this different?

[JoelMC]

Look at the posts yesterday about DVD Decrypter being shut-down...then compare that the supreme court not hearing this case on Lexmark's behalf. It seems that DVD Decrypter isn't even as bad as SSC, but they've been bullied literally to death. SSC found a way to "crack" Lexmark's trade secret, and then sold it off to Lexmark competitors. How can that not stand up, but "some company" can attack on the grounds of DRM violation?

Re:Nay!

[misterpies]

Not the whole story. Unlike the US Constitution, the European Constitution also has consumer protection (II 98) and anti-trust clauses (III-161 to III-169) and the whole needs to be read together.

So if the EU constitution was passed it would be _unconstitutional_ for companies to engage in competition-distorting practices.

Remember that there's very little new in the Euro Constitution. Almost all of it - including IP protection and antitrust measures (see e.g. articles 81-86 of the EC treaty) - is lifted from earlier treaties. And there's plenty of caselaw to show that in most cases, the antitrust provisions win out over IP rights.

And yes, I am a lawyer currently working on European antitrust cases, so I know what I'm talking about.