OEM's BUILD A FORTRESS OF PATENTS TO KEEP OUT REMAN INDUSTRY

OEM’s BUILD A FORTRESS OF PATENTS TO KEEP OUT REMANUFACTURE INDUSTRY

As demonstrated in our recent review of inkjet cartridge patents (see “Inkjet Cartridge Patents Provide Glimpse into OEM Strategy”), studying newly granted patents and patent applications made by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can provide insight into the future plans and strategies of the companies filing them. Recent patent filings can also reveal much about the technical problems developers face. With this briefing, we are expanding our patent-monitoring activities to include electrophotographic technology.  We just concluded a review of U.S. patent applications filed by and the patents granted to four major laser printer OEMs—Brother, Canon, Lexmark, and Samsung—between January 2009 and August 2011.

For this briefing, we focused when possible on integrated toner cartridges because many low-end and midrange printers incorporate them. Integrated cartridges also provide us with a more comprehensive look at various technologies in a single design. We concentrated on cartridge design, rather than toner and photoconductor (OPC) chemistry, because most lawsuits and U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) complaints that OEMs have brought against non-OEM supplies companies in recent years have involved such patents. For example, Canon, which manufactures all of HP’s cartridges, and Lexmark have both recently won important cases before the ITC (see 337-TA-731 for a list of our articles on the Canon patent-infringement case and 337-TA-740 for articles on the Lexmark complaint).