Banned: China Print-Rite Can No Longer Sell Brother Clone Toner Cartridges in the U.S..

[jim]

Banned: China Print-Rite Can No Longer Sell Brother Clone Toner Cartridges in the U.S..
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has ruled that certain toner cartridges produced by Print-Rite, a Chinese company, are barred from entering the U.S. market because they infringe on a patent held by Brother, a Japanese company.

The patent is related to a component called a “drum gear assembly” that is used in Brother’s laser printers. Brother obtained a general exclusion order (GEO) from the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in 2020, which allows CBP to stop any imports of products that violate Brother’s patent, regardless of the source.

Print-Rite claimed that it had developed a new drum gear assembly that did not infringe on Brother’s patent, but CBP rejected this argument and found that Print-Rite’s products still fall within the scope of the GEO. This means that Print-Rite cannot sell its Brother-compatible toner cartridges in the U.S. unless it obtains a license from Brother or successfully challenges the CBP ruling.

[Author]

January 30, 2024 at 5:18 PM