Patent agency agrees with complaint from ETIRA, European Toner & Inkjet Remanufacturers’ Association
The European Patent Office has decided to revoke a Europe-wide toner remanufacturing patent which it had granted to Canon in 2005.
The decision to kill patent EP 0632 342 was made immediately after a two hour hearing session earlier today at the EPO-offices in The Hague, during which ETIRA demonstrated to the three EPO examiners that the Canon patent lacked the key element of innovation.
ETIRA had filed official opposition against this patent back in 2006, on the grounds that it did not cover anything new: in fact, the patent claimed that when remanufacturing a toner cartridge, the removal of residues of adhesives by using a solvent was not known to the industry before 1993. At the hearing however, ETIRA laywer Katja Dauster, assisted by Jan Luijks (Cartrec) and ETIRA’s Vincent van Dijk, was able to convince the EPO that it wàs known, and that anyway a skilled person would have thought of using a solvent. Moreover, another patent pre-dating the Canon patent had already described this method, thereby proving that socalled “prior art” existed long before this patent was granted to Canon.
On behalf of ETIRA, Jan Luijks (Cartrec) and Katja Dauster (both pictured top left) argued the case before the EPO-examiners.
ETIRA’s Vincent van Dijk welcomed the EPO-decision: “This is another great victory for the cartridge remanufacturing industry. We had always argued that removing residues from adhesives with a solvent is something any normal person over 12 years of age would think of. These things should not have been patented in the first place. But when they are, ETIRA will fight them with all its force.”
ETIRA thanks its lawyer Ms Katja Dauster, who did a great job today, as well as Mr Jan Luijks and the other ETIRA members and industry magazines, all of whom helped last year by supplying materials to argue the case.
For more information contact:
ETIRA
European Toner & Inkjet Remanufacturers’ Association
Vincent van Dijk, Secretary General
Grieglaan 7
4837 CB
The
Tel + 31 6 414 614 63
Fax + 31 76 5640451
info@etira.org
www.etira.org
skype: vincentvandijk