In politics August is the silly season – everyone is away, and the media (The Recycler excepted) is scrabbling around for stories. Then out of the blue comes the news that Memjet is suing HP over their page-wide array technology.
Lawyers will argue and judges will decide the merits of the case, or HP will settle, or Memjet will withdraw the claim, or they will cross-license the technology. So you might think it is an OEM hissy fit, but actually it is much more than this. Peter Mayhew, Director and Senior Analyst at Lightwords Ltd., stated: “The principle of routing the media path past a static line of nozzles was probably the only way to take inkjet productivity to the next level. It was inevitable that we would see legal challenges between the different solutions to this problem. However, it would be unfortunate for our industry if the benefits the technology has yet to yield for both 2D and 3D printing are significantly delayed as a result.”
Page-wide printing is still in its infancy and only limited by current ink technology that determines the drying time and paper technology, and as these technologies improve, so will the use of page-wide printers – and that is the battle ground. Who will own the high-speed office printing sector in years to come?
Memjet’s C6010 and C6030 MFP
Here at The Recycler we have operated the HP Edgeline multi-function printer, and we have a Memjet printer and an HP X printer. The HP Edgeline was a bag of nails on a good day and expensive scrap the rest of the time. The office Memjet is good, but the smell from the ink can be unpleasant, and it really works best with treated paper. Memjet works best in high-speed labelling and wide-format applications, neither the forte of HP so far. HP X works out of the box, and despite my not wanting to, I like the HP X printer the best.
HP X is part of HP Inc’s future, and this legal action could not have come at a worse time for HP, as the split is now less than three months away. The new, to-be-created HP Inc. needs to come out of the starting gate ready to rock and roll, and not embroiled in a legal suit that could be a distraction. So the pressure is on HP to get the claim sorted. But at the same time, HP needs to own the technology if they are going to take page wide printing and HP Inc. forward.
And of course if you think “silly season”, some of the more shallow thinkers might ponder that the investors in Memjet technology might just be a little aggrieved that HP X is winning the A4 page-wide array printing race, and want a share.