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CeBit: Epson lawsuits slammed by cartridge makers
Makers
and resellers of third-party ink-jet printer cartridges and refills
polled at the CeBit show in Germany on Saturday are critical of the way
Epson has slammed them with lawsuits to protect its lucrative cartridge
business.
Epson,
the world’s number two printer maker, filed complaints against 25
companies in the US and UK in February seeking to bar the manufacture,
import, or distribution of aftermarket ink cartridges in those
countries.
Consumer-friendly business model?
Aftermarket
cartridges typically cost much less than official cartridges and
threaten the printer maker’s business model, which relies on selling a
low-cost printer and making profits from future sales of ink.
“They’re
stealing money from customers. They give them a free printer and then
steal their money,” said Brian Suh, marketing director of South Korea’s
EC World, which makes ink-cartridge refill kits that allow consumers to
replenish used cartridges.
Suh said he thinks printer makers have
gotten steadily greedier in the last few years and consumers are being
treated unfairly. However, that view wasn’t shared by all at CeBit.
“We
are okay with what Epson is doing,” said Richard Keller, manager of
technical engineering at 3T Supplies. The company, which trades under
the Peach name, develops compatible cartridges in Switzerland and
manufactures them in the Czech Republic.
“Low-quality copies are not
good because the whole price system collapses and it hurts the
industry,” he said. “But the way they [Epson] are doing it is very
aggressive.”
Legal case history
Epson fought similar battles
successfully in 2005. It reached settlements with Multi-Union Trading
of Hong Kong and the UK’s Environmental Business Products and CybaHouse
that saw all three companies stop importing and selling
Epson-compatible cartridges in the US and UK markets.
The cases
publicised by Seiko Epson to date have ended with out-of-court
settlements, so the industry remains unsure just exactly where the line
between patent infringement and innovation lies.
“The whole
situation with Epson, the patent issue: we have to be careful,” said 3T
Supplies’ Keller. “We believe our products don’t infringe their
patents. We have developed around them. We have our own patents.”Big fish feed on the small
The
lack of a clear legal ruling is enabling Epson to go after small
companies, said Udo Rossner, head of sales at JR Inkjet Deutschland.
“As
long as there is not a court case they can go around shouting because
they know tiny little companies can’t go to court,” he said. “If all
the manufacturers got together and defended it as one it would be a big
problem [for Seiko Epson].”
Rossner believes Epson will never be
able to completely control the market, especially due to its
international nature, but that it might be easier to control it through
legal means in the US than in Europe.
In the US it’s easy because
corporations have more rights than consumers,” he said. “But in
continental Europe the consumer has damn hard rights. If they lose one
case, they lose it all.”
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