Canon Comes After the Aftermarket… Again

Canon is suing at least 15 companies in the United States.

The imaging giant and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) believes the sale and distribution of Aftermarket cartridge products infringe its patents.

Many remanufacturing and new-built companies being named are well known include Ninestar, Static Control and Print-Rite North America.

Many industry players have commented to RT Media this could be as big an issue as the infamous Canon dongle gear legal battles since 2012. Many aftermarket players in China and the U.S. developed workaround solutions that did not infringe Canon’s patents, so that cartridge remanufacturing and manufacturing could continue.

Canon is claiming seven patents it filed a number of years ago, and as early as 2006, in the U.S. have now been granted in the last few months. The asserted U.S. patents are 9,746,826, 9,836,021, 9,841,727, 9,841,728, 9,857,765, 9,869,960, and 9,874,846.

Both HP and Canon laser printers use Canon’s patented technologies in theri respective laser printers and printing consumables.

Steve Weedon (pictured), the newly appointed director of strategic development at Print-Rite is in the United States. He told RT Media in an exclusive interview it is still too early to really know the detail of the lawsuits. “We need to get into the detail now of what these new patents are really saying, what their claims are and how they relate to those people who have workaround patents for the dongle gear issues to determine what the complaints from Canon are at this time.”

You can watch RT Media‘s David Gibbons interview Steve Weedon on inTouch TV News.

RT Media will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available from its many global sources.