The company, along with Inkjet Direct Ltd. and Greentrees International Ltd., was named in Canon’s latest IP case in Europe.
The case was announced yesterday by Canon, with both Inkjet Direct and Greentrees International commenting on being named by the OEM in the patent infringement case in the UK.
The announcement stated that the patent infringement action at the High Court of Justice of England and Wales against the three companies is for infringement of Canon’s patent EP 2 087 407 “by, inter alia, the importation, manufacture and sale of certain toner cartridges for use in various models of Canon and Hewlett-Packard laser beam printers”. The OEM noted that it is seeking “various remedies including an injunction and damages”.
Badger’s response stated: “[On Thursday] Canon announced legal action against Badger for infringement of its 407 patent on gear/dongle. Badger has been in discussion with Canon for some time to try and resolve this matter in a friendly and reasonable way. Badger fully respects OEM patents.
“Badger sells remanufactured HP toner cartridges, but Canon believes that any remanufactured toner reusing OEM components infringes the 407 patent. In trying to settle this matter Canon insisted that Badger needs to agree that the mere act of assembling an OEM toner infringes its patents, even if each separate component does not infringe its patents.
“Badger has asked Canon to clarify at what point it regards a remanufactured toner to infringe its patents. It asked Canon: ‘Please clarify the level of permitted repair to an OEM empty before it infringes (in your view) the 407 patent. Here are a number of possible scenarios. Please advise whether you regard each as infringing the 407 patent or not. For all options assume the waste hopper is emptied and the hopper cleaned/refilled with new toner.
- No replacement of any parts.
- Replacement of a minor part e.g. magnetic roller or wiper blade.
- Replacement of OPC fitted with a new gear/coupling which avoids infringing the 407 patent.
- Fit OEM gear/coupling from that empty (not another empty) onto a new OPC and the new combined part then assembled into the empty.
- 2 and 3 together.
- 2 and 4 together.’
“Canon has been unwilling to answer these questions. We feel it is in the interests of the global remanufacturing community to seek clarity as to the rules regarding remanufactured cartridges.
Badger continues to sell its HP/Canon remanufactured cartridges, with aftermarket OPC fitted with the reused OEM gear/dongle, which we believe respects the Canon 407 patent.”
The OEM has been pursuing infringement of the same European patent in cases begun against companies across Europe and beyond throughout 2014: including Seine and Aster in the Netherlands; KMP and wta as well as tintenalarm.de in Germany; Zephyr SAS and Aster in France; European Cartridge Warehouse Ltd. and Printer Supplies Technology Ltd. in the UK, though both have since filed for dissolution; and X-Com Shop Ltd. in Russia.