Who "owns" a used OEM inkjet cart?

[turbguy]

This is going to get ridiculous if SCOTUS rules in Lexmark's favor...

http://gizmodo.com/supreme-court-printer-cartridge-case-could-be-the-citiz-1793643311

 

[The Hat]

This is going to get ridiculous

It won’t matter to me in the slightest, because I will continue to refill and enjoy my printers till I drop off.....

 

[stratman]

This case has come up on the forum previously.

From the above link:

You can read the full, technical details of the case here but the simple version goes like this:Since the ‘90s, Lexmark has used what’s called a “shrink-wrap license” with its cartridges. It offers a “prebate” to consumers by knocking off 20% of the price in exchange for their agreement to never resell or reuse the cartridge. The consumer agrees to this the second they open the package. Essentially, Lexmark believes that those cartridges belong to them, not the consumer reselling them because the consumer didn’t have the right to sell them in the first place.

Reusing an OEM cartridge is key to many citizen refillers.

I seriously doubt that the citizen refiller would be hunted down and prosecuted by Lexmark for refilling their cartridges. Those who profit from the practice would be a different story if it were to rise to some level of harm to Lexmark or to make a splashy point such as occurs from time to time with someone who has downloaded illicit music files. When was the last prosecution by the music industry you heard?

We shall see.

 

[stratman]

It won’t matter to me in the slightest, because I will continue to refill and enjoy my printers till I drop off.....

Maybe not.

From the above linked article:

In a separate case, the Federal Circuit concluded that when a patented item is sold abroad, the patentee’s U.S. rights are not exhausted at all.

If Ireland reciprocally observes US patent rights then you might be affected as much as a US citizen.

 

[turbguy]

The tricky part (IMO) is that the consumer should be consistently advised of the terms of sale, PRIOR to the sale. If you buy a Lexmark OEM cart from Amazon, those terms are clearly exposed. If you buy from Staples, they are not.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

you buy the ink and rent a cartridge - temporarily for the time of use - o.k., but I won't contact my lawyer before I buy some cartridges again, and with ink tank and CISS equipped printers I'm better off anyway

 

[The Hat]

We have enough stupid laws here from our old Imperial past, which ironically, we always had a tendency to ignore anyway, and I don’t think Sam’s laws on refilling Lexmark cartridges would ever come up in conversation in a pub here.

Anyhow who’s stupid enough to buy a Lexmark printer in the first place, I certainly would never consider it...
Now Canon born and raised...

If Ireland reciprocally observes US patent rights then you might be affected as much as a US citizen.

WE only observe the laws here we know, we can’t get away with...

 

[Roy Sletcher]

This highlights some of the ridiculous concepts in our modern society.

If you are a high-tech company that wishes to expand a product range. It is more important to hire lawyers rather than engineers. This applies from Apple to Xerox.

As the immortal Bard said: ''The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers,'' from ''Henry VI,'' Part II, act IV, Scene II.

rs

 

[stratman]

Anyhow who’s stupid enough to buy a Lexmark printer in the first place

 

[jtoolman]

Hat! Now that has to qualify as the best and most pertinent statement I've ever heard!
Joe