News 

Environmental Business Products (EBPL) agreed an out of court settlement with Seiko Epson of Japan following proceedings in the High Court. Epson accused the company of infringing a number of its patents. EBPL has also agreed to pay legal costs and damages. It said in a statement that it gave in to Epson's demands because it was not confident that the products concerned were legal.

'We have ceased importing and supplying Epson compatible cartridges because we are not confident of finding Epson compatibles that do not infringe one or more of Seiko Epson's patents or registered designs, said Pat Stead, managing director.

Epson-compatible inks have been removed from EBPL website which continues to list products for a variety of Brother, Canon, HP, Lexmark and Xerox.

In

ADVERTISEMENT

April 2004 EBPL won the Queen's Award for Enterprise for International Trade for outstanding or continuous achievement in international trade, resulting in substantial overseas earnings, with growth and commercial success. Under the Ink Again brand, it both remanufactures cartridges by cleaning and refilling them and supplies new cartridges. It also runs a scheme for collecting and recycling used cartridges.

This is Epson's second successful action against an ink importer in the space of a week. A ruling in Oregon has prohibited Hong Kong-based Multi-Union Trading from exporting 75 cartridge models to the US. Epson is also in the process of taking action several other companies.

'We will continue the enforcement of our intellectual property to protect our innovative products against importers supplying infringing products,' said Seiichi Hirano, director, chief executive of Imaging & Information Products Operations Division of Seiko Epson.

The high-price of replacement inks from printer manufacturers has spawned a thriving industry in alternatives, with computer stores, office supplies outlets and supermarkets offering own-brand compatible inks, not to mention the plethora of such services available on the Internet. Printer manufacturers insist that only their own inks guarantee the best image quality and warn that using third-party inks may invalidate a printer's warranty.