Inkjet Wholesale News aims to provide updates on the latest significant occurrences in the field of printing. Whether it’s the launch of a new technology or volatility of market prices, we’ll be here to give you the lowdown on what happened, when it happened, and what it means!
Digital Revolution Gains Legal Right to Sell Generic Samsung Toners under Its Own Brand
Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and compatible toner cartridge manufacturers have always been at odds. The reason is that the compatible toner cartridge manufacturers are eating into the market share of genuine toner cartridge brands because the former are cheaper.
Since printer manufacturers price their printers at a loss in the hope of making profits on cartridge sales, the fact that compatible cartridge manufacturers are capturing the market means that the big companies are making losses as opposed to not making profits.
Over the years, this battle has resulted in OEM cartridge manufacturers suing compatible cartridge manufacturers in various locations around the world. One of the cases that received a lot of coverage was Samsung’s against four compatible toner cartridge manufacturers. The defendants in the case were Digital Revolution, Maxperian, Dark Stone, and A1 Interflow. That case was rejected by the judge in charge.
However, Samsung decided to appeal the case at The Hague Court of Appeal. Now, the verdict of that appeal has been announced and covered by the Dutch media. According to the reports in the Dutch media, Digital Revolution won the legal right to sell compatible Samsung toners under its own brand.
The appeal from Samsung was treated as a ‘patent dispute’ and the court’ final ruling was to deny all appeals. Specifically, the judge ruling over the case said that ‘all claims have been rejected’.
The verdict is obviously a shot in the arm for Digital Revolution which is also known as 123inkt. The director of Digital Revolution, Gerben Kreuning, when approached called the ruling ‘fantastic’. He went on to add that the ruling of the original judge and the appeal judge showed that Samsung’s patent is ‘nonsense’.
In the initial case, Samsung tried to use a supposed patent on a microchip to get compatible toner cartridge manufacturers like Digital Revolution to stop selling their products. The OEM claimed that because certain compatible toner cartridges sold by third party brands used a particular microchip, they were infringing the patent rights of the OEM.
However, the judge responsible for the case specifically stated that the patent on the microchip wasn’t ‘inventive’. The judge’s ruling in the first case even contained the speculation that there was ‘a high probability’ that the patent would be ‘declared’ completely ‘invalid.
Digital Revolution has been in the news recently for other reasons as well. Less than a month back, Digital Revolution was forced by a legal ruling to post a rectification. The ruling was also given by The Court of the Hague.
The retraction or rectification was for Digital Revolution’s claim on its website that its toner cartridges were ‘totally rebuilt’. This gave off the impression that Digital Revolution’s cartridges were made with used parts of genuine cartridges.
The claim was ruled to be ‘misleading’ by the judge and Digital Revolution was required to keep a rectification on its website for a period of two weeks. The logic was that since Digital Revolution didn’t use any used parts and that its toner cartridges were completely new, it could not claim that they were ‘totally rebuilt’.
The rectification that Digital Revolution was required to put on their website for two weeks included the establishment of the fact that they had mislead customers with the ‘totally rebuilt’ claim and the explanation that this wasn’t true as the Digital Revolution compatible toner cartridges were brand new.
OKI Announces Launch of ES8473 Smart at the BTA Channel
OKI Data Americas has decided to introduce the ES8473 Smart at the upcoming exhibition The BTA Channel. The ES8473 Smart is a multifunction machine that offers functionalities of faxing, scanning, copying, and printing.
The ES8473 Smart is designed for the small to medium scale workgroups as it is a small but strong machine with the capability of churning out prints fast at affordable prices.
The machine is extremely compact especially if you consider the fact that it can handle A3 and tabloid size documents. The ES8473 Smart is available in three different versions.
These are the ES8473 MFP which is a desktop machine and the ES8473C MFP and ES8473X MFP which are both floor standing machines.
The ES8473 Smart is a machine that is based on the smart Extendable Platform (sXP) so that it can use OKI Data Americas’ offerings in the field of printing solutions. Examples of OKI’s printing solution offerings that the ES8473 Smart will be able to work with include document capture and management solutions and print management.
The ES8473 Smart is blessed with a number of features and characteristics. Its general speed is to the tune of 35 ppm and it takes approximately 9.5 seconds to spit out the first print. The capacity of the ES8473 Smart is also significant as it can stock up to 256 gsm. Furthermore, the ES8473 Smart can handle up to 11 by 17 inch sheets of media.
The user will also have the chance to scan a colour image and then use the send – to option on a seven inch colour touch screen display that can be tilted in multiple ways. For users who worry about the confidentiality of the documents they are processing while working as a part of a larger group, the ES8473 Smart comes with a secure print encryption functionality.
Some of the standard features that the ES8473 Smart boasts of include.
- Compatibility with mobile printing applications
- Compliance with ENERGY STAR
- Wireless LAN connectivity that can be chosen
- Duplex printing
- Second output bin with job separation feature
- Convenience stapler
- Basic printing, copying, and scanning features
OKI Data Americas is a subsidiary of the Japanese OKI Data Corporation. The company is based out of New Jersey and primary devises and markets customised solutions and peripheral equipment. Some offerings of OKI Data Americas include POS and thermal label printers, dot matrix printers, multifunction machines, and monochrome and colour printers,
The BTA Channel Mid – America District Event will be taking place in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the end of the first week of May. The BTA Channel is expected to see about 80 high profile participants either from the printing industry or associated with it. The BTA Channel is led by the Business Technology Association. The BTA events not only help exhibitors get in touch with businesses upstream and downstream but also help dealers get in touch with one another.
Finding Samsung toner can be a little difficult at times, but it is good to find that there are vendors able to sell the generic kind. I never realized this “battle” had been raging for so long, but congratulations to Digital Revolution! We will be ordering more toner in the near future now too.
All Hail the digital revolution. Thanks for reading the post and your comment Duggie. We’re looking forward to your order. Cheers mate!