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posted by cmn32480 on Monday March 27 2017, @05:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the seems-pretty-black-and-white-to-me dept.

A corporate squabble over printer toner cartridges doesn't sound particularly glamorous, and the phrase "patent exhaustion" is probably already causing your eyes to glaze over. However, these otherwise boring topics are the crux of a Supreme Court case that will answer a question with far-reaching impact for all consumers: Can a company that sold you something use its patent on that product to control how you choose to use after you buy it?

The case in question is Impression Products, Inc v Lexmark International, Inc, came before the nation's highest court on Tuesday.

As with many SCOTUS disputes, Lexmark is a devil-in-the-details case that could have wide-ranging implications for basically everyone who ever buys anything — so, all of us.

Here's the background: Lexmark makes printers. Printers need toner in order to print, and Lexmark also happens to sell toner.

Then there's Impression Products, a third-party company makes and refills toner cartridges for use in printers, including Lexmark's.

Lexmark, however, doesn't want that; if you use third-party toner cartridges, that's money that Lexmark doesn't make. So it sued, which brings us to the legal chain that ended up at the Supreme Court.

Source: Consumerist


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2017, @07:14PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2017, @07:14PM (#484796)

    Money in hand now may be worth more to, say, Lexmark than hoping to milk patents in the future.

  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 28 2017, @03:52PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday March 28 2017, @03:52PM (#485231) Homepage
    Which is exactly why printers are expensive and refills are cheap. Money up front is always more valuable than a continuing revenue stream.
    --
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