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Courts Say No to Printer Cartridge Clones

Canon gains injunction against company supplying ink cartridge substitute.

By Brian McWilliams, PCWorld   

Canon Computer Systems announced that it won a preliminary injunction preventing a company from cloning its ink cartridges for Canon%squots popular BJC-600 Bubble Jet printers.

A California federal court enjoined Nu-Kote International from making, using, or selling replacement cartridges for the Bubble Jets, on the grounds that Nu-Kote is infringing on Canon%squots patent.

The action follows a similar injunction against Nu-Kote recently won by Epson over ITS ink jet printers.

In both cases, the court orders mean that PC users will have to buy replacement cartridges from the printer manufacturer.

PC World%squots printer guru Melissa Riofrio said that will hit consumers right in the pocketbook.

%dquotThere is a definite economic impact on users, and most of them still don%squott realize at least until they buy the printer and buy their second cartridge--it usually comes with a cartridge--they buy their second cartridge and think, %squotWhoa! That was thirty dollars!%squot and they realize they%squotre going to be spending $30 every time they use up this cartridge. That%squots when they see Nu-Kote refills and think, %squotWow, I can refill my cartridge for $8.%squot%dquot

At $30 a pop, a year%squots supply of ink jet cartridges can cost more than the printer itself. Manufacturers clearly know this, and that%squots why they%squotre being so aggressive about pursuing patent infringements.

According to Keith Waryas, an analyst with International Data Corporation, ink jet market-leader Hewlett-Packard may be the next to weigh in against companies that clone its cartridges.

%dquotIf it happened with somebody like HP, which has obviously the largest installed base of ink jets, that could be very difficult on a lot of third-party manufacturers of ink jet cartridges because their market is, more or less the HP market. They%squotve got the largest installed base, therefore it%squots the easiest one to hit. That could become very difficult very quickly.%dquot

It could be time for a quick trip down to Office Depot to stock up. But Riofrio cautioned that many printer manufacturers say their warranties are voided if you use third-party ink cartridges.