The lawsuit, over the sale of Inkrite cartridges for Epson printers supplied by Medea, alleges that the compatibles infringe Epson’s technology patents.
Responding to this, Ebuyer has agreed to stop selling the cartridges and pay Epson and undisclosed sum.
Legal proceedings against Medea have been ongoing for four years with a trial set for October.
Epson’s Group Product Manager Matthew Drew said: “We invest heavily in research and development to ensure that our customers receive the very best possible imaging results from our products. Attempts to copy our technologies impact both on us as a brand and on our consumers’ experiences.
“We will continue to take a proactive stance against such infringements on our technologies in order to protect our brand and intellectual property,as well as our customers and authorised channel partners.”
Medea’s Managing Director Yusuf Okhai said: “We are very confident the court will find we do not infringe any valid patents of Seiko Epson Corporation. How could we? Our cartridges are not designed to prevent recycling, prevent users using all their ink, and fight for a monopoly.
“Our ecological SMART cartridges (SuperChips, Monitoring and Replacement Tanks) are designed to deliver maximum user value for the lowest price with the lowest waste. Not to perpetuate a rip off ink culture by using the legal system as part of our corporate bullying.
“This has been going on since 2006. We are just at the last stages of a long battle to defend our rights to operate in the market.
“To quote Gandhi – ‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then they lose.'”
Medea is based in Scotland and was founded in 1998. It also owns other printer consumables brands such as JR Inkjet.