Print-Rite’s PR-2 gear
The remanufacturer has been asked to “share the story” behind the gear’s development.
The gear, which The Recycler previously reported on, replaces Canon’s “dongle gear” that has been at the centre of many US and European IP cases in 2014, and was said by the remanufacturer to be a “breakthrough” attained “after many months of research and development”, with the PR-2 receiving “non-infringement opinions from two prominent US patent firms” as well as “worldwide patent protection”.
Print-Rite has “strong confidence” that the gear will “alleviate the industry’s concerns” around the gear patents, and “leave a door open for the remanufacturers to invigorate the [industry] regardless of the aftermath of the ITC investigation”, with the gear compatible with a wide range of monochrome cartridges and drums, including “but not limited to” HP’s CE505 and CE255 series as well as Canon’s CF280 series.
Discussing the gear’s background, Print-Rite stated that the drum is “the simplest compatible drum gear the industry may ever have”, with “great interest” shown in the product since its launch, and it added that “the first time we had the opportunity to review an OEM ‘dongle’ gear several years ago, we realised the ‘dongle’ gear would be a key barrier for non-OEM parties in the industry”.
Noting that innovation “is our soul”, the company came up with the PR-1 gear in 2009, which has “an innovative coupling accepted by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)” and was “granted the US patent US 8615184 in December 2013”. While the PR-1 was “not our best-selling product” as it “costs more than the copy ‘dongle’ gear” that “at the time was not asserted by Canon” to be infringing its patents, Print-Rite believes it was “probably the first and only innovation in the market to have competed with [the] OEM before Canon took legal action” against the ‘dongle’ gear.
Print-Rite added: “[The] PR-2 gear is the outcome of our continuous efforts in product innovation. [It] has a simple structure with a coupling capable of moving outward and inward without inclination to the axis of the gear, resulting in cost advantages. It is workable in both remanufactured products and compatibles. For remanufacturers, the advantage of PR-2 is that the gear can be used directly without modifying or changing the structure of the cartridge!
“We believe PR-2 is the best solution to prepare our customers for any outcome of the ITC investigation. With your continuous support, we expect PR-2 will become a best-selling product.”