HP SUED OVER TONER/INK TECHNOLOGY

[Anonymous]

<>HP sued over printer technology
SUIT: INDICATOR THAT INK IS OUT DECEIVES USERS
A Georgia woman has filed a class-action lawsuit against Hewlett Packard,
alleging the Palo Alto company’s smart-chip printer technology deceives
consumers into buying new inkjet cartridges before the ink has run out.

The suit was filed Thursday in Santa Clara County Superior Court by Deborah
Tyler of Norcross, Ga.

“The smart chip is dually engineered to prematurely register ink depletion
and to render a cartridge unusable through the use of a built-in expiration date
that is not revealed to the consumer,” the suit alleges.

HP spokesman Bob Sherbin said Friday that the company does comment on pending
litigation.

Tyler’s attorney, Bruce Simon of Cotchett, Pitre, Simon & McCarthy in
Burlingame, could not be reached for comment.

The suit was filed on behalf of HP customers who bought HP inkjet printers
from February 2001 to the present that contain a smart chip or other technology
that prematurely registers that the cartridge is empty or expired.

HP’s printing and imaging division is its most profitable business. The Palo
Alto company derives a steady stream of profits from its supplies business,
which includes ink and paper. On Wednesday, HP reported the printer division
earned $6.1 billion in revenue and had an operating profit of $932 million in
the first fiscal quarter that ended Jan. 31.

Tyler bought an HP 842C inkjet printer at Best Buy, according to the suit.
The smart chips are used in consumer printers HP Deskjet 812C, 804C and 842C,
and commercial printers 2000C and 2500C, the suit said.

The March 2004 issue of PC World magazine took an in-depth look at printers
that stopped working before the ink had run out. The magazine found that the
Epson Stylus C84, a popular, low-cost inkjet printer, stopped printing with 20
percent of the ink left in the cartridge, on average. The Canon i850 stopped
printing with 10 percent of its ink left.

[Author]

February 23, 2005 at 10:07 AM