HP strikes back in print cartridge wars

Printer vendor HP has won a victory of sorts in its battle to prevent third parties from undercutting its lucrative printer ink cartridge business, settling a patent battle against one of the world's largest and technologically advanced remarketers of generic print cartridges.

Print-Rite is one of many third parties that manufacture ink cartridges for brand name printers at a cheaper price than the brand names offer.

HP claims to have "reached a mutual agreement" with Print-Rite under which the third party remanufacturer has agreed to pull its 'HP02' line of cartridges from the market and has "acknowledged that HP's patents are valid and in effect".

HP has confirmed with CRN that Print-Rite will pull the HP02 line from the Australian channel as part of the agreement. Print-Rite, based in Hong Kong, has been contacted for comment.

CRN understands that the HP02 cartridge proved particularly challenging for HP as Print-Rite had effectively managed to copy a chip included within HP's cartridge which communicates with the printer driver to verify that an authorised (HP-branded) cartridge was loaded.

Printer vendors have for several years produced these chips so that devices reject non-branded cartridges.

Print-Rite resellers, which include QuickToner, Image Nation Online, Printzone, Toner Warehouse and SpeekyInk, told CRN that the Print-Rite's circumvention of the chip protection was at the heart of HP's attack.

"Print-Rite is probably one of the biggest suppliers of third party cartridges in Australia," said one reseller, who chose to remain anonymous.

The reseller said that while there are some "cheap and nasty" remanufacturers on the market, Print-Rite's products were of good quality - yet more reason for HP to take action to protect its revenues.

"I'd say HP have gone after Print-Rite because they are the most reliable third party cartridge company," he said. "Our return rate for HP and Print-Rite is the same."

Resellers are "always under pressure from vendors not to sell compatible or third party products," he said. "We've had legal letters from Epson and Lexmark over this issue. But we believe that offering the consumer choice is a good thing."

The reseller denied claims by vendors that third party cartridges leak and produce ink of a different viscocity that can damage the print head.

"Using Print-Rite cartridges wouldn't make any difference at all. Usually we get a higher yield [than the HP cartridge] at a better price," he said.