The defendants are:
Seine Image International Co, Ltd;
Ninestar Image Co, Ltd;
Ziprint Image Corp;
Nano Pacific Corp;
Ninestar Technology Co, Ltd;
Town Sky, Inc; ACM Technologies, Inc;
LD Products, Inc;
Printer Essentials.com, Inc;
XSE Group, Inc;
Copy Technologies, Inc;
Red Powers, Inc;
Direct Billing International, Inc;
Compu-Imaging, Inc;
EIS Office Solutions, Inc;
123 Refills, Inc;
Ninestar Image International, Ltd;
Ninestar Technology Co, Ltd;
Ninestar Management Co Ltd;
Zhuhai Seine Technology Co, Ltd.
According to the OEM, “Canon filed a complaint on June 28, 2010 before the US International Trade Commission, alleging that certain of the toner cartridge products, and the photosensitive drums contained within them, of 20 companies infringe Canon’s US Patent Nos. 5,903,803 and 6,128,454.
“The infringing cartridges and drums are made and sold for use in certain Hewlett-Packard branded and Canon branded laser beam printers. Canon is seeking an Order that stops the importation into and distribution within the United States of those infringing cartridges and drums.”
Canon lodged a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (USITC) in Washington to block imports of the cartridges and filed a companion civil lawsuit in federal court in New York.
The article added: “The patents relate to the rotating drums inside the cartridges and how they connect to the printer. Laser beams scan across the drum in a pattern matching the image to be printed and powdery toner sticks to the device before being deposited on the paper, according to the complaint.”
Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper and Scinto, which has been named the 2010 “Best US IP [intellectual property] Law Firm” by International Legal Alliance Summit and Awards, is representing Canon.
A Ninestar spokesperson said: “Lately, Ninestar Image International Ltd was informed that Canon Inc filed 337 investigation claims through the US International Trade Commission (ITC) over a series of toner cartridge, which had been stopped for sale long time ago to the United States market.
“Canon Inc is the pioneer of the global imaging technology and an admirable leading company in the industry. Ninestar always honor Canon’s patents on imaging output technologies. Ninestar is now amply analyzing the patents involved and the contents of the claim.”
This is not the first time that Ninestar has been caught up in a patent infringement lawsuit with Canon. In December last year, Ninestar announced that it had settled a lawsuit over LED-equipped inkjet cartridges.
Also last year, Ninestar was fined $11 million by the US ITC. It issued civil penalties in the complaint filed by Epson on 23 March 2006 after finding violations of cease and desist orders and a consent order issues in the original investigation.