An image from the granted Lexmark patent
The patent refers to a “skiving seal” in a toner cartridge, which might affect toner remanufacturers.
Lexmark’s granted patent, EP 2 577 403 B1, generally focuses on a toner container system for a toner cartridge, making reference to the “reservoir for containing toner”, the “rotatable member positioned within” an opening in the reservoir, and most significantly a “skiving seal”.
This seal is set out in the document as being made “for blocking toner from entering a gap between the opening and the rotatable member”, and is positioned “along the length of the rotatable member”. The seal itself is made of a flexible sheet with “a surface and a length corresponding to the length of the gap” in the reservoir.
A tubular portion “adjacent” to the gap is formed to create the seal, with the sheet folded over itself, and the patent therefore is significant to toner remanufacturers because when replacing the seal during the remanufacturing of the cartridge covered by the patent, remanufacturers might be undertaking what can be seen in the document as a manufacturing aspect of the patent, which only Lexmark could undertake legally.