Add your opinion to: HP sues Asian firms over patents

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All of it is made in China...

Ironic, made in China, and sue in China.
tux_engineer
9th Mar 2010
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HP Inks

From an HP document regarding their industrial inks:

"Unlike some equipment manufacturers that sub-contract ink production, HP is an ink manufacturer. Its solvent/ UV ink manufacturing facility in Cape Town, RSA is the largest solvent digital ink manufacturer in the world.
In addition to this, the company has solvent/UV as well as water-based ink base ink factories in Israel, and R&D teams in both countries. A new ink plant for solvent inks, opened in 2009 in Puerto-Rico..."

Also, back in 2006, Fujifilm bought Avecia's desk Ink Jet ink assets which included the only two manufacturing facilities, one in the UK and one in the US. Avecia was rumored to be HP's largest ink supplier.
Bill4
9th Mar 2010
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its ink ONE and lexmark lost this battle in court.

If they have copied the ink, well maybe they have a case... assuming that ink is not considered being invented prior to all patents, which i think it should.

As for the catridges... ya, they probably have a case for copying... except for the fact that a court has already ruled against lexmark for making proprietary cartridges which locked customers in to one printer. Since that is essentially what HP does, they will probably lose this battle.
Been_Done_Before
9th Mar 2010
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But they were print heads made by HP...?

Wait. Is this a company taking used printheads with ink supply, genuine HP product, and re-using them? Or is this a company that is licensed to make printheads for HP, that made extra ones to sell elsewhere?

If the latter is the claim - and anecdotally there's a lot of counterfeit manufacturing in China of all sorts of goods (I think the unusual Strida bicycle was a victim) - I see the problem patent-wise. But if it is legitimate product being recycled after use for re-use, that seems fair to me. But bad news for HP, obviously. They sell their special ink like it's holy water but I don't think you need their blessing to use a printer.

So maybe they'll just make the genuine HP printhead end its specified working life more dangerously. Say when the ink finishes, acid comes out instead. Hot acid. The product packaging disclaimer will be something to see.
Robert Carnegie 2009
11th Mar 2010
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