COUNTERFEITER HIJACKED HP TRUCKS TO STEAL INK-TECHNOLOGY

[Anonymous]

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/03/08/25336.htm
SINGAPORE:COUNTERFEITER HIJACKED HP TRUCKS
TO STEAL INK CARTRIDGE TECHNOLOGY
Chinese
Rivals Hijacked Trucks to Steal Technology, HP Says
SAN FRANCISCO – Hewlett Packard claims Chinese and Taiwanese
competitors stole patented printer cartridge components from HP’s
factory in Singapore and copied them to sell made-to-order counterfeit
HP inkjet cartridges on Amazon.com. “Trucks carrying HP parts were
hijacked while en route from the manufacturing facility in Singapore to
the assembly plant in Malaysia … in direct response to the heightened
security measures that had been implemented in HP production
facilities,” HP says.After ripping off the technology, Hewlett Packard
says, Microjet Technology (of Taiwan) Mipo Technology (of Hong Kong and
mainland China), and their U.S. affiliates, including SinoTime
Technologies (of Florida) sold more than 300,000 of the inkjet
cartridges in the United States.

 The defendants have the
capability to make nearly 10 million counterfeit cartridges a year in
Asia, Hewlett Packard says. The 28-page federal filing is the latest in a
long line of complaints that China is making up its technology gap with
the United States through industrial espionage, theft, and wholesale
patent infringement.MicroJet “sells generic and/or made-to-order
infringing ink cartridges to other companies, including defendants Mipo
and PTC [PTC Holdings Ltd., of Hong Kong],” and sells them itself as
well, Hewlett Packard says. HP claims the defendants violated six
patents after stealing the HP components.

Hewlett Packard says it
discovered the scheme after seeing color ink cartridges for sale on
Amazon.com and Craigslist, advertised as “HP compatible.HP bought some
of the cartridges from Amazon.com, then used HP’s internal tracking
database to cross-reference ID numbers on components, and found that the
cartridges had “a genuine HP printhead and a non-HP cartridge body that
closely resembled a genuine HP cartridge body.”And it found that the
printheads came from HP lots from Malaysia that had never been assembled
by HP – “i.e., were identified as production gaps.” All of these stolen
items “were packaged in a ‘Mipo’ labeled box and were individually
wrapped in a clear plastic interior packaging that is clearly consistent
with the standard packaging for products manufactured by defendant
Microjet,” according to the complaint.HP demands an injunction and
damages for patent infringement, unfair competition and conversion. It
is represented by Ruffin Cordell with Fish and Richardson of Washington,
D.C.

[Author]

March 8, 2010 at 2:23 PM