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
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 27 2017, @08:01PM (2 children)
How does this fit in with Gorsuch being confirmed (or, theoretically, not)? With respect to scheduling etc.
Is he excluded by not being a member right now, or if he were confirmed in time he could participate or ...
If you want to see something funny which appears to be true:
Senator Flake then asked Gorsuch if he would rather fight “100 duck-sized horses or one horse-size duck”, to which Gorsuch avoided giving a firm answer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gorsuch_Supreme_Court_nomination [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Monday March 27 2017, @08:29PM (1 child)
and TIL why the game Super Duck Punch [kongregate.com] exists...
I had no idea that this was a meme. [duckduckgo.com]
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 27 2017, @09:08PM
I had no idea that this was a meme.
Its an old meme, it shows up in Minecraft story mode.