Three separate court cases involving printing-technology disputes have been settled over the past few weeks, involving three of the industry’s largest vendors: EFI, Canon and Kodak.
EFI this week announced victory in a patent lawsuit filed against it in June 2013. Componex, Inc. sued EFI alleging infringement of two patents: U.S. 6,113,059 and U.S. 6,685,076.
Back in October 2014, a Wisconsin Federal district court agreed with EFI that there was no infringement. The court invalidated one of the two patents and found that EFI did not infringe the other. The court then entered judgment entirely in EFI’s favour and ordered Componex to pay some of EFI’s costs. On October 16, 2015, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Componex’s appeal.
“At EFI we are proud to bring innovative solutions to our customers at competitive prices,” said EFI General Counsel Alex Grab. “Componex chose a different path. Rather than responding to lower prices from its competitors, Componex filed a meritless lawsuit against one of its own customers, us. We are pleased that the courts agreed with our positions, and will continue to defend ourselves vigorously against anyone who chooses litigation over competition in the market.”
Earlier in October, Canon Inc. successfully resolved a patent infringement dispute against Zinyaw LLC, which does business under the name TonerPirate.com, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, concerning certain toner cartridges and photosensitive drum units sold for use in Canon and Hewlett-Packard laser beam printers.
Zinyaw is now prohibited from making, using, selling and offering for sale the specified toner cartridges and photosensitive drum units.
In a third technological dispute in the courts, Eastman Kodak and Collins Inkjet, a Cincinnati-based company, reported on October 26 that they have reached a settlement of an ongoing court case brought by Collins against Kodak, concerning the use of Collins inks on Kodak Versamark print heads.
While terms of the settlement remain confidential, Collins’ ink will now be approved for use in Kodak Versamark systems, such as the D-series and 6240 range of imprinting solutions. Kodak will offer full refurbishment services for Versamark print heads without regard to whether Kodak or Collins inks are being used. Customers with or without current contracts are free to choose either Kodak or Collins inks, without impact to the quality, price or speed of printhead refurbishment services that Kodak offers.
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