RSSSupreme Court Refuses Lexmark Case
By David Worthington | Published June 7, 2005, 4:05 PM
The Supreme Court has denied a petition for a writ of certiorari requested by Lemark International against Static Control Components (SCC) to have the court review alleged violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
The case is centered on Lexmark's control of aftermarket supplies for its products and Static Control's desire to provide customer with low-price Lexmark compatible chips. Lexmark adheres to the notion that the practice violates its intellectual property rights and customer agreements for cartridge return.
"I could not be any happier that justice is being served," said Ed Swartz, CEO of Static Control. "For nearly 900 days we have fought tooth and nail with this multibillion dollar company. We vowed at the outset that we would not back down or waiver, and we will see this battle to its very end."
Lexmark filed suit against SCC on December 30, 2002, alleging that SCC's Smartek 520/620 chips violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. In the case history, Lexmark has suffered several legal setbacks.
In October 2004, the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Cinninnati, Ohio overturned vacated a preliminary injunction issued by Chief Judge Karl Forester of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky that forbade the sale of Smartek replacement chips for Lexmark cartridges.
Forester denied a motion for a preliminary injunction at a later date in January 2005. In another setback, an appeal to the full body of the 6th Circuit to rehear the case was denied in February 2005.
"This deals only with the issue of an injunction. The case itself continues at the District Court level. More broadly, here are the facts about this issue. Lexmark provides laser cartridge customers with high quality products at competitive prices. We offer a regular laser cartridge and we also offer a discounted laser cartridge under our Return program in exchange for a customer agreeing to return the toner cartridge only to us for remanufacturing or recycling," Julane Hamon, a spokesperson for Lexmark International told BetaNews.
"This case is about improper methods used by competitors to interfere with Lexmark's customer agreements for the Return cartridges in violation of Lexmark intellectual property rights and in order to get an unfair competitive advantage. We will continue to ask the courts to enforce existing laws governing contracts and intellectual property so that our laser cartridge customers can get the benefit of full and fair competition."
To prevent this practice, Lexmark added code to its printers and toner cartridges that would only accept genuine Lexmark cartridges. SCC, an aftermarket cartridge maker circumvented the control by selling off-brand chips directly to customers.
http://www.eff.org/legal...exmark_v_Static_Control/ has lots of nice info on the subject/case. Personally I hate lexmark printers for other reasons besides this.
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|I sent an Email to Lexmark about 2 months ago asking why is it cheaper to buy a new Lexmark Printer than it is to buy the ink for them... They never replied! You get a few drops per cartrage and that's that. A buddy of mine found an ink resevoir that for his particular printer had 6, and they each hold 200 ml or more, very nice and practical. I believe he paid $90 bucks for it, and the refil packages are like $30 bucks. I can't get one for mine because it has a flatbed scanner on top, and the other printer is a laser printer.
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|My company has a Phaser 850 that takes solid ink (kinda like a big crayon) and despite the fact that there are no chips in the crayons I haven't seen anyone else selling the ink. They DO have a chip attached to a drum that lubricates the printhead that is set to expire after a set number of pages. When I decided to buy this thing they claimed to have a really low cost per page, partly due to an offer of free black ink for life. When you buy a box of a color it come with 2 or 3 (can't remember) back crayons. Well, we use more black than that and when we run out we have to ask our printing supplies vendor or the company that does our repairs for a free 3 pack. They'll only give me one at a time if they have them at all... they've told me it's hard to get them out of Lexmark. I tried Lexmark since HP printers have gone downhill in the last ~5 or so years. I'd take a referbished 5si over the current crap they're putting out. I think trying to make their money off of service is going to eventually bite them in the rear. I think the next high capacity printer I get will be a Canon; I have had great luck with their copiers and faxes.
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|I like Lexmark printers, but it was always cheaper to just buy a new printer than the ink. I moved to a BW laser a few years back, and don't miss color at all. In fact, I finally replaced my toner a few months back for $40 which will last me another 6K pages. $30 for 300 pages, or $40 for 6K?
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|The difference is amazing isn't it? But consumers don't tend to plan ahead and think they will save money by going for an inkjet. My HP LaserJet 1100a lasted for over two years before needing a toner replacement.
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|Good. Lexmark charges way too much for their inks. I had bought a printer from them for $90 and when I went to get some new ink it came to $120 for the ink. I bought an Epson and the ink for that is a fraction of the cost. With Lexmark it is far cheaper to buy a new printer every time you need new ink instead of just the ink.
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|Or just buy a refill kit. I bought a $1.99 refill kit from eBay for a cheap Lexmark printer. I was able to use that refill kit six times before it ran out. The cartridge costs ~$20, meaning I saved almost $120. (and yes, the printer was abandoned when I ran out)
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|They are also quite messy and one shouldn't have to go through such to get a fairly priced product.
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|Not to mention refills are often hazardous to the printer itself. As a technician, I've seen a few printer heads destroyed by refills. Gotta know what ur doing.
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