Static Control Components will face a preliminary injunction hearing on Friday, Feb. 7 in the lawsuit filed against it by Lexmark on Dec. 30, 2002. Also, HP made comments yesterday that indicate it does not support Lexmark's use of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act in this case.
Lexmark claims that Static Control's T520/620 chip technology violated DMCA and traditional copyright law by providing access to a copyrighted work -- the 520/620's Toner Loading Programs and Printer Engine Programs.
Friday's hearing will determine if Static Control will be allowed to resume making and distributing the "Smartek" chip in question, for the Lexmark T520/620 cartridge, while the case is in progress. In January, Static agreed to put a temporarily hold on the manufacture and sale of the chip in return for extended time to prepare for the injunction hearing, which was postponed from early January. (Watch for breaking E-Charger news on Friday with the results of the hearing.)
The case has received extensive publicity lately, including a Feb. 5 interview with HP Senior Vice President Pradeep Jotwani in a CNET News.com article. In the interview, Jotwani said that Lexmark's use of the DMCA was "'stretching it'" and that ""I don't plan on going down that path.'"
The article continued, "Jotwani said HP will protect its intellectual property rights if companies infringe on them, but the DMCA is not the right weapon to use."
Jotwani said that HP acknowledges some consumers do want a choice of non-OEM supplies, and claimed that "'We consciously make sure that our cartridges are reusable and refillable.'" He admitted, though, that "some high-end features, such as ink-level monitoring, are disabled once a cartridge is refilled." The article pointed out that "HP makes refilling technically feasible, but still tries to discourage customers in other ways."
In addition to the CNET interview, the case received further publicity from a MSN article that was linked to the news site's main page yesterday, Feb. 5. That article was titled "Red alert! It's the great printer refill rip-off" and included a poll asking readers "Should Lexmark be able to keep other companies from offering Lexmark-compatible printer supplies?" As of press time, more than 95 percent of respondents said, "No."
The CNET article is available at http://news.com.com/2100-1040-983518.html?tag=fd_top and the MSN article is available at http://msn.zdnet.com/zdfeeds/msncobrand/reviews/0,13828,2910015,00.html
For more information on the case, see the following articles:
Editor's Note: This article is free for use by all remanufacturers for publicity or other purposes. Feel free to post this article on your site or to provide it to your customers, but please credit Recharger Magazine.
