Seiko Epson filed an amended complaint on Thursday 18th June 2009 in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.
The amendment claims that Abacus 24-7 LLC, eForCity Corporation, R&L Imaging Group, Inc., XP Solutions LLC, Clickinks.com, LLC, Global Business Support Systems Inc., and Green Project Inc. have committed acts of infringement and are still infringing Epson patents.
Epson details every speculated patent that has been infringed by each individual company/defendant in the complaint.
The complaint also serves to bring attention to defendant Joseph Wu, president, chief executive officer and spokesperson of Green Project. Wu was employed by the former IEM (now R&L Imaging) and Green Project. Both companies are being charged with infringement. Epson alleges that Wu has been knowingly and intentionally inducing infringement of Epson patents.
In response to the complaint Green Project Inc. released a statement: “On June 18, 2009, Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation added California-based ink cartridge wholesaler Green Project and its President, Joseph Wu, as co-defendants in an amended complaint to the patent lawsuit initially filed in the U.S. District Court of Oregon on April 28, 2009. The amended complaint broadly alleges that Green Project and Wu have been knowingly and actively infringing three Seiko Epson patents related to ink cartridge technology.
“Green Project repairs and recycles ink and toner cartridges from major brands, including Epson. According to Dr. Dariush Adli, the lead IP counsel at Chan Law Group, ‘Under the ‘first sale’ doctrine or ‘patent exhaustion’ doctrine, the first unrestricted sale of a patented item ends the patentee’s exclusive right granted by the patent therein, and ends the patentee’s control over that particular item. Therefore, any patent rights of Seiko Epson in a particular ink cartridge that has been the subject of an unrestricted sale in the U.S. are exhausted after the sale. Later recycling process conducted on such cartridges or their sale by Green Project cannot infringe Seiko Epson’s patent rights as they simply do not exist. In its essence, this case filed by Seiko Epson is simply without merit.’
Green Project’s press releases also stated that, “In addition to the seven corporate defendants, Seiko Epson specifically named Joseph Wu, the President and spokesman of Green Project, as an individual defendant. “This is inappropriate” said Dr. Adli, adding: ‘The amended complaint does not provide sufficient factual allegations to indicate what actions Wu had taken in his individual capacity to allegedly infringe the asserted Seiko Epson patents. The relevant allegations in Seiko Epson’s complaint suggest, at most, that Wu acted under his corporate capacity as the President of Green Project. Such circumstances do not implicate Mr. Wu in his individual capacity.’”