Aftermarket Online Seller Beats OEMs in Court

An Aftermarket supplier of ink and toner cartridges has won a patent infringement lawsuit brought on by HP, in the Netherlands.

A very excited Gerben Kreuning (pictured), Managing Director of 123inkt.nl told RT Media, “We WON again! We won the patent case in court!”

On 25 November 2015, the District Court of The Hague ruled in favor of 123inkt.nl a Netherland-based online supplier of print consumables, as well as office supplies, in proceedings brought against them by HP.

Previously, HP had claimed that a chip on certain 123inkt.nl cartridges infringed one of its patents and requested the court ban the sales of the cartridges involved.

In defense, 123inkt argued that “the patent on the chip should not have been granted by the European Patent Office” and that “the patent was abused to maintain a monopoly with certain HP inkjet printers.”

Agreeing with 123inkt.nl, the court determined that the relevant claim of HP’s European patent was invalid due to the lack of novelty. So 123inkt.nl is now allowed to continue to sell these cartridges.

It’s not the first time HP and 123inkt.nl have faced off over patent infringement issues. HP filed a patent infringement lawsuit against then in December last year. That dispute was settled earlier this year allowing 123inkt to continue selling these cartridges.

In yet another case in April this year, this time with another OEM, Samsung, 123inkt also won. The Court of Appeals in The Hague ruled in favor of 123inkt.nl in that patent infringement lawsuit.

Kreuning also told RT Media that 123inkt gives consumers the choice of using original, branded OEM cartridges, but also his own brand as an alternative. “HP has pulled out all the stops with an army of lawyers to limit the choice for consumers to only use the expensive HP-branded products. This feels like a double win, because I also see the settlement as a victory for the consumer as well as us.”

“I am happy on behalf of Dutch printer users and I am also proud of our determination,” added Kreuning. “As far as I can determine, HP has not lost many cases. Already several webshops have succumbed to the show of power by the large printer manufacturers. Most do not dare to take on these costly patent cases. It is now 2-0 for the consumer because in the end the consumer is the one that benefits. The consumer does not accept that he is forced to pay more for a few cartridges than for a brand new printer.”

Following the Samsung win in April, thousands of support messages were sent to 123inkt.nl in appreciation.

Kreuning claims 123inkt.nl has more than 1.6 million customers and is market leader of online sales of ink cartridges, toners, printers, paper and office supplies. He says its webshop has been chosen by consumers for eight years in a row as the best Dutch ‘Computer Hard- and Software’ webshop. In October 2015 123inkt.nl was awarded the Best Webshop in The Netherlands 2015 -2016.

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