HP Cracks Down On Alleged Ink-Cartridge Counterfeits, Sues Four Asian Companies
March 9, 2010 - Business Week is reporting that Hewlett-Packard has sued a Taiwanese maker of printer ink cartridges, MicroJet Technology Co., and three other companies, alleging patent infringement and sale of products stolen from HP. The case is Hewlett Packard v MicroJet Technology, 10-00965, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco), and was filed March 5, 2010.
According to the Wall Street Journal, in its 28-page federal lawsuit, HP says MicroJet Technology manufactured and sold ink cartridges that infringe on HP imaging technology. The lawsuit also states that MicroJet sold some components to Mipo Group (Holding) Co. of Hong Kong, and PTC Holdings Ltd. of Hong Kong, which resold them.
HP alleges that the companies’ HP-compatible color ink cartridges use HP's patents, and that the companies also converted more than 300,000 HP print heads stolen from HP facilities in Asia, and then sold them around the world, falsely stating that they were made by Mipo Technology Ltd. of Hong Kong. HP is seeking damages and a court order blocking the sale of the products.
HP says the Mipo Group sold the products on various Web sites, including Amazon.com and Craigslist.com, and that HP representatives purchased these products from Amazon between April and June 2009. According to the Wall Street Journal, HP purchased Mipo products sold by its U.S. unit via Amazon, and discovered they were made of a genuine HP print head and a third-party cartridge. Mipo and other parties converted over 300,000 HP print heads, according to HP.
The issue of ink-cartridge patent infringement and refilling is not a new one. In the mid-1990s, Lexmark International was one of the first ink-cartridge manufacturers to tackle the issue, and since then Lexmark, Epson, Canon and HP have periodically sought to stop the practice, stating that these practices represent intellectual-property theft.