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Epson claims that Bolton-based Recharge Inkjet Technologies Limited, which trades under the name CartridgeMonkey.com, will pay it a 'substantial settlement payment' and promise 'not to infringe Epson's patents and registered designs'. However, the full details remain confidential.

Epson has succeeded in forcing Recharge to now only sell Epson original inks and multipacks and discontinue its Epson-compatible lines because of 'concerns that they may infringe Epson's intellectual property rights,' according to Mr Scott, director of Recharge.

Epson claims the action is to protect the investment into its ink technologies. Nick Butler, Managing Director, Epson UK said: 'We welcome CartridgeMonkey.com's decision to remove the cartridges complained of and its recognition of the importance of respecting Epson's intellectual property rights.'

He added: 'Genuine Epson ink is the highest quality ink you can use for your Epson printer.'

It may turn out to be the only ink you can buy if third-party cartridge resellers continue to be felled by Epson's legal campaign.

In these David and Goliath tussles, the Epson giant has been very adept at negotiating a victory without taking to the field of combat.

In the past year or so, the likes of Environmental Business Products Limited, UK importer and distributor of Epson compatible printer cartridges, and other third-party importers and resellers such as Multi Union, Armor and CybaHouse, have been swept aside by Epson's legal team with out-of-court settlements.

Gary

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Flynn, Director, CartridgeMonkey.com and Recharge Inkjet Technologies Ltd, said: 'CartridgeMonkey.com is a small company, like most, in comparison to the Seiko Epson corporation. But in spite of this, we took considerable legal opinion including that of patent attorneys at our considerable expense. Whilst the importer of the third party manufactured cartridges assured us they did not infringe Epson's intellectual property rights, our belief, based on the information we were presented by our legal team is that Seiko Epson has an extremely strong case and that we could possibly lose any resulting legal proceedings.'

We spoke to a UK manufacturer of Epson-compatible third-party inks which is also embroiled in a legal tussle with Epson.

A spokesperson for Medea International said that while it will withdraw products found to infringe patents to which it doesn't have a licence, it will continue to make available cartridges it doesn't believe infringe Epson's IP.

Yusef Okhai, Medea's founder and MD said: 'Epson has not licensed anyone anywhere to use its technology ... so it is something of a contradiction to say it is not trying to stamp out compatibles cartridges that people can actually afford. Epson is using the media and scare tactics to stop people selling compatible products, and it is working.

'How can a compatible cartridge be made and sold for £3, yet the Epson version costs £22? Especially when one considers economies of scale - it can make them cheaper in volume if they are really the same - and if they're not the same - then why is Epson suing people? ... It is somewhat ironic that Epson sells a product for a profit to a loyal customer, and then uses those funds to go to court, to ensure it can restrict the choices of that same customer for the life of the printer.'

Epson had not returned our requests for comment by the time of publishing.