Digital Home Thoughts: Epson Wins Preliminary Ruling Against Aftermarket Cartridge Manufacturers

"Epson is one step closer to closing the books on a case against third-party ink cartridge manufacturers that make and sell products to work with Epson printers. The company has won a preliminary ruling saying that 24 aftermarket print cartridge manufacturers do indeed infringe on Epson's patents, and they face orders that would bar them from selling the infringing products in the US. Epson had filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission in February of 2006 accusing the companies of manufacturing and selling ink cartridges that came too close to Epson's own cartridge designs. The company had begun to file federal lawsuits against the companies, and many of them decided to settle with Epson rather than fight the case. During the trial conducted in January of this year, Judge Paul Luckern found that over 750 cartridges from various companies infringed on at least one of 11 patents owned by Epson."

Clearly Epson has gone with a different approach than most to prevent other companies from manufacturing cheap ink cartridges. Instead of trying to get into price wars or constantly changing cartridge formats, they are simply filing patents and make sure to enforce them. I wonder whether this will make Epson printers sell more or less because I'd bet that given the fact that Epson will be the only ones that can manufacture the cartridges, consumers won't be able to get potentially cheaper generics.