Issue #0627/2 - As probably the most active manufacturer currently, Epson is not letting anything rest where defending its intellectual property is concerned.
Seiko Epson Corporation has recently announced that it has scored another victory in the ongoing battle to protect its inkjet intellectual property.
As a founder member of ICCE (Imaging Consumables Coalition of Europe, Middle East & Africa), Epson has always been very active in the pursuit of companies trading in either counterfeit supplies products or in third party ink products that infringe the company’s intellectual property.
In recent years, Epson has stepped up its intellectual property protection program, scoring a number of major victories. This most recent victory involved Recharge Inkjet Technologies Limited, trading as Cartridge Monkey, which was importing compatible Epson cartridges that infringed Seiko Epson Patents.
Taking a very upbeat tone, Recharge Inkjet Technologies Limited declared that it would continue to sell original Epson cartridges so that “our customers continue to benefit from the many significant long-term benefits when using ink cartridges manufactured by Epson”. One has to wonder why the company was selling compatibles if it recognises that using branded originals offers ‘many significant long-term benefits’?
It has to be said that not all original cartridges from printer manufacturers are necessarily such high quality! CharisCo Printer Labs has recent experience of faulty original cartridges from Lexmark. One of the two #31 cartridges used had to be put through a cleaning cycle before being used. In addition, one of four #33 cartridges, had to be soaked in cleaning solution overnight and put through a cleaning cycle three times before all the inks were performing adequately. A 33% first-time failure rate is not good!
Although this action by Epson is not directly connected to the remit of ICCE, the connection is worth making because printer manufacturers are increasingly determined to stamp out illegal third party supplies activities, whether counterfeit or patent infringing.
One of the ways that ICCE has stepped up its initiative recently is to enter into a partnership with the World Customs Organisation (WCO), opening up its intelligence database to the WCO to help accurate targeting of counterfeit activities by customs around the globe.
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