OEMs Urge Remanufacturers to Join Them

OEMs Urge Remanufacturers to Join Them

Printer manufacturers or OEMs are urging those making competitive aftermarket printer cartridges, to join them in the fight against counterfeiting.

According to Allen Westerfield, President of the Imaging Supplies Coalition, the global loss to counterfeit or fake printer cartridges is worth more than 3 billion US dollars.

And Allen Westerfield joins me online. Greetings Allen…

“Good morning, David. Thanks for calling me today.

I really appreciate it and look forward to talking to you about this important subject.”

“Why are fake counterfeit cartridges such a problem?”

“David, counterfeit cartridges are a problem because it really engages criminal activity. Everyone in the imaging supplies, industry supply chain, is harmed by counterfeit cartridges.

Let’s start off with the government who has to incur the cost of enforcement. They also lose taxes.

Then you go to the channel that is competing against these illegal goods.

The customers are ripped off and they don’t receive the products they think they ordered.

And then the OEM loses revenue; their brand is damaged. And then the remanufacturers are even damaged because many people think that they are responsible for these counterfeit cartridges which in fact is not.”

“So you have the printer OEMs turning up next month in Las Vegas to address the problem. Which OEMs?”

“David, in 1994 OEM recognized this is gonna be a continuous problem and they formed a non-profit trade association called Imaging Supplies Coalition. 20 years (from) now, we’ve been fighting intellectual property. The current members are Brother, Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, Samsung, Toshiba and Xerox. The major brands in the industry that represent the vast majority of the ink and toner cartridge shipped. All these folks will be present at our conference coming up.”

And you are also wanting remanufacturers, the competitors of the OEMs, to join the fight?

“Absolutely. We are convinced that on this issue even though we compete vigorously in the markeplace, and we will continue to do so, on the issue of counterfeiting we stand together. There needs to be zero tolerance for counterfeiting and other intellectual property violations in our industry. We’ve been working, for example, in the United States with the I-ITC on finding and hurling out counterfeiters from our industry. And yes, we do welcome remanufacturers and all industry stake holders to our conference.”

“This is compelling Allen. So tell our viewers where this is all happening and how they can participate?”

“The conference is taking place in Las Vegas, NV at Planet Holleyhood, right in the middle of the exciting Las Vegas Strip, on September 14-16. ”