HP cracks down on cartridge refill industry

[Itsme]

HP cracks down on cartridge refill industry
By Michael Singer
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: October 20, 2005, 3:09 PM PDT

Hewlett-Packard on Thursday accused a national cartridge reseller of refilling used printer cartridges with ink that relies on a formula for an HP-patented ink brand.

In its letter to Cartridge World, HP asked the company to stop using inks with the same chemical composition that's found in its patented brand of Vivera inks. HP holds 9,000 patents related to imaging and printing, 4,000 of them for consumable supplies such as ink and cartridges.

Although not an official legal action, the letter to Cartridge World is part of a broader attempt to crack down on the ink cartridge refill industry, HP said.

"HP spends millions of dollars annually in R&D to create innovations that benefit our customers, and we are rigorous in our protection of this investment," Pradeep Jotwani, senior vice president of supplies in HP's Imaging and Printing Group, said in a statement. "HP hopes that Cartridge World North America will assist its franchisees in quickly complying with the law."

Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP said it found multiple instances of cartridges filled with the infringing ink at Cartridge World's U.S. franchises. The cartridges replace a handful of HP printer cartridges, including those numbered 56, 57 and 78, and would be used in HP's DeskJet consumer printers.

Representatives with Cartridge World North America in Emeryville, Calif., and its home office in Adelaide, South Australia, were not immediately available to comment on the accusations.

Cartridge World, commonly found in strip malls and in business parks, refills empty inkjet cartridges from printer makers such as HP, Epson, Canon and Lexmark International and sells them at heavily discounted rates. For example, Cartridge World sells an HP 56-compatible cartridge for $17.72 instead of its usual retail price of $35.35. A discounted HP 78-compatible cartridge that retails for $53.07 sells for $26.57 under Cartridge World pricing.

Separately, HP said it settled its false-advertising lawsuit against Rhinotek Computer Products of Carson, Calif.

Rhinotek acquires used HP ink cartridges and refills them with generic ink prior to resale. HP's suit alleged that Rhinotek's packaging failed to tell consumers that the "compatible" products are used.

Rhinotek has denied any wrongdoing, but has agreed, among other things, to modify its packaging. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

[renovation]

hp to me is the whore of the printer world .and the way they own you on there ink cartages . i refuse to buy there printers .even do to me they do hold a little advantage over the other printer company's in print quality . its not worth enough for me to bow down to them . also wont buy lexmart for the same reason .i don't know for sure but i think lexmart and hp are the same under to different trade names do .

[BobyJo]

This sort of hedging the market is why I do not nor ever will own another HP Printer, or Lexmark too for the fact.
You can purchase a new printer with ink cartridges in it.
Say for $39.99 at Walmart, it is not the best printer out there but the price is cheap.
You start using the printer and sooner or later the cartridges empty.
With these two printers it is always sooner.
So you go down to the local office supply and pick out a new black, and the color cartridges.
You stand amazed at the prices of these cartridges.
The whole set will cost almost $100.
The best thing to do would be to just purchase a new printer.
Just throw away the old one.
Just for example the last HP printer we purchased was from Walmart.
The box was torn badly but all the parts were in the box. I purchased this printer for $75.00.
We do a fair amount of photo printing so each and every month I had to go to Sam's Club to purchase a new set of double capacity cartridges.
The black was like $49.00, the color set was like $54.00.
The single capacity would not even last a month.
The double capacity would last a month sometimes longer.
I still have that printer setting in the box.
I would give it away, if someone wants to come get it.
I purchased a new Cannon and a new Epson printer both will print for about
3-4 months before having to install new cartridges.
The price for these cartridges are about half the cost of the HP catridges. IMO::These companies are a ripoff with thier ink.

[DarkFury]

The problem with most of those print carts that come with the units initially is that they aren't "full" carts to begin with. Pretty much you sometimes get 1/4 to 1/2 capacity in those initial carts that come with the printer.

Personally, I still like my HP.. however I did switch from buying the "cheap consumer line" where the ink cart and the print head are all in one unit (thus making the cartridge price high to begin with) to the ones where the ink is separate from the print head. Those inks last alot longer than the consumer inks...

What people fail to realize is... when you buy the "re-manufactured inks" sometimes you are getting a "used" printhead in the bargain... so basically you are paying for just the ink (hence it is cheaper). When those same folks buy the "real deal" cart from HP, they are paying for both the ink and the new printhead at the same time (hence almost double the cost).

More or less, you can avoid the high cost carts and still get good HP quality by buying a unit that separates the 2 components... however the average printer buyer doesn't even consider that when making a purchase... as they are looking at the price of the printer rather than the cost of operating that printer. This is what I think leads to the hard feelings that are expressed about the cost of HP ink carts.

I use both HP and Epsons (for different purposes) and so far, they still haven't done anything for me to move to anyone else's offering in the ink jet category.

[mcs328]

I have a canon with six seprate ink carts. When one color runs low I replace that one color from staples for 12 bucks. It's an old canon 8200 but it prints out photos very nicely. I might get an epson now that I see they have printers with seperate ink carts for each color like canon.

[DarkFury]

I might get an epson now that I see they have printers with seperate ink carts for each color like canon.

Yeah... and now HP has jumped on this bandwagon as well, but only on certain printers in the line. My 1200D printer uses the separate carts for each color.

[Airencracken]

My epson RX500 is like that too.

[thekidrocks]

This is one reason I've been partial to Epson over the years. Every Epson I have owned has been excellent in terms of reliability, and have been affordable to purchase genuine Epson inks. I am thinking the last Epson I had was only $60 or maybe a bit more for all 4 cartridges (black and 3 color). The unit died - but didn't owe me a thing given the heavy use it received.

Now I use laser for everything. Mind you, with entry color lasers - it's the same deal. Buy a cheap-o color laser for $300... the toner cost more than $300! And many lasers come with standard cartridges ( or the lower of 2 possible ) instead of basic starters. I have a junk Minolta 2300 in the garage that was that way. It failed, I am letting it set until the Minolta warranty runs out and the replacement plan kicks in - then get my money back toward something else at Staples.

Bought an Okidata that is fantastic to take it's place. Sure - a complete set of toner is over $400, but they are 7K cartrdiges!

[Nija]

I prefer Epson (even though I worked for though ) and their multiple cartridges is the thing that really sold be (well besides the awesome quality and reliability (my mom has owned an Epson for almost 10 years with no problems[I believe it's the 720 or 740]

[dtt]

I have an Epson RX600 that I'm verrrry happy with. My fiancee has an HP all-in-one. Guess which one we're ditching next week when we move in together.