Bangladeshi government to ban used IT imports
May 17, 2012
The government has responded to e-waste dumping by planning to restrict imports of used IT equipment into Bangladesh.
The Daily Star reported that the government’s Commerce Secretary, Ghulam Hossain, stated that its import policy for 2012 to 2015 will restrict imports of “scrap, old computers and other office equipment to prevent environmental hazards”, specifying that “computers, photocopiers, fax machines, printers and other office equipment” will be prevented from being dumped there.
Donation of devices to people in Bangladesh and the shipment of e-waste to the country had made it a “dumping place” for such equipment already, Hossain added. The policy is legally binding and may become effective in July, as the previous three year agreement comes to its expiration in June 2012.
He continued: “Recycling of an old computer and other office equipment is more expensive than making a new one. These are wastes and harmful to the environment. We are going to prepare it for the interest of public health.”
In recent months Australian and Indian governments have sought to tighten laws and initiatives concerning e-waste to ensure more recycling and less dumping of old IT in landfills, as well as the illegal exportation and dumping of IT in third world nations.
Categories : Rank 3
Tags : Bangladesh Environment Recycling
HP loses $190 million tax case
May 16, 2012
$190 million tied to Dutch tax shelter lost in battle against IRS.
HP has lost $190 million (€149 million)
in a case against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), with the ruling turning attention to a tax-cutting strategy created by American International Group (AIG) and utilised by a number of European banks, reports Reuters.
HP had sued IRS for the returns in 2009. Judge Joseph Goeke of US Tax Court ruled against the OEM.
Reuters states that the strategy, widely known as foreign tax credit generators, “involved trading derivatives with the aim of generating capital losses and foreign tax credits for large corporations, like HP, which then used them to try to lower their US tax bills”.
The IRS states that foreign tax credit generators lack economic substance and are engineered to create artificial financial benefits that are exempt for IRS deductions, and the IRS has outlawed many foreign tax credit generators around 2007.
HP’s take on the strategy involved a Dutch company created by AIG called Foppingadreef. Judge Goeke wrote that HP’s investments in Foppingadreef “were not valid for more than $15.5 million (€12.1 million) in capital-loss deductions claimed by HP in 2003 because the investments were not real economic bets”.
HP’s stakes were instead carefully positioned loans made by the OEM and, through Foppingadreef, paid back to HP. As such, Foppingadreef would generate at least $178 million (€139 million) in tax savings that are not allowed.
Categories : Rank 3
Tags : Business HP North America
Memjet to remain in Sydney
May 14, 2012
Sydney R&D facility and 300 staff to be taken over following recent legal settlement.
Memjet CEO Len Lauer recently
spoke with print industry website ProPrint regarding the recent takeover of a R&D facility and 300 staff in Sydney following the settlement of the case between the George Kaiser Family Foundation and Silverbrook Research.
As a result of the settlement, Memjet has assumed direct control of facilities in North Ryde and Balmain, Sydney, as well as approximately 4,000 patents.
The operations are set to be renamed Memjet Australia, with Lauer stating that the “majority” of employees were offered positions under the new management. “A very large majority” is said to have accepted roles, of which the deadline for acceptance ends between 14 and 18 May.
Lauer commented: “I am confident that for the foreseeable future, we will have large presence in North Ryde because one: the skill sets are very unique and hard to replicate anywhere in the world, and two: the assets and facilities we have there to assist engineers for research and development would be very expensive to move.”
The Memjet CEO stated that the company is “very committed to our operation in the Sydney area”, although was in the process of considering whether to retain its “small facility in Balmain”.
Memjet and Silverbrook settled in early May 2012, resulting in the Memjet company assuming “direct ownership and control” of the intellectual property pertaining to the Memjet devices, and will take over all research, development and commercialisation.
A wide number of OEMs and technology companies including Océ, Lomond, Toshiba, Xante and Colordyne have since announced or demonstrated Memjet-enhanced printers and devices.
Categories : Rank 3
Tags : Australia Business Memjet
Pelikan International records higher pre-tax profit, revenue falls
May 11, 2012
The company’s higher profit in the first quarter of 2012 contrasts with its declining revenue, with anticipation of a “challenging quarter ahead”.
Pelikan International, the parent company of Pelikan Hardcopy Production, saw pre-tax profit rise to RM8.647 million ($1.369 million/€1.058 million) from RM4.3 million ($681,059/€526,221) in 2011 for the first quarter of 2012.
BTimes reported the findings alongside a revenue decline from RM460.75 million ($72.97 million/€56.359 million) in 2011 to RM417.523 million ($66.1 million/€51.071 million), down to the company “streamlin[ing] its products and eliminate[ing] non-profitable business segments/products”. The site added that lower revenue was “especially” notable in the printer consumable segment, and was “partly contributed to” by the “lower translation rate” of the euro.
Pelikan International stated that it “anticipates a challenging quarter ahead, especially in the European market”, which it considers its main market globally. To counter this however, the company added that it has “embarked on counter measures to restructure its operations to cushion any further negative development of the market”, and is also aiming to develop markets in Latin America and Asia which have “good growth prospects”.
Further changes expected to be made include “operating structures” in production, sales and distribution, in order to “cater to the volume of business, structural changes to the distribution market and its customers”.
The company’s cutbacks and wholesale changes in the past few months reflect poor sales figures from 2011, with its European, Malaysian and Australian operations sold and discontinued, whilst 160 jobs were to be cut.
Categories : Rank 3
Tags : Asia Market Data Pelikan
Memjet buys the IP for its printers
May 10, 2012
Company purchases all IP related to its printers in hope of reaching new markets.
Technology website SemiAccurate reports that Memjet is attempting to address IP issues that have so far limited the availability of its printers by purchasing “the entire portfolio” behind its products.
The article states that there is “said to be 4,000 issued and pending patents from Silverbrook Research Pty”. This means that, once the patents are bought by the company, Memjet products will be much more widespread, with a wider variety of printer models available for purchase.
The company recently settled a legal case with Silverbrook and revealed partnerships with Fuji Xerox, Océ and Toshiba.
Categories : Rank 3
Tags : Legal Memjet North America
Hollywood actor loses lawsuit with Kyocera Mita
May 9, 2012
Ben Stein sued the OEM for breach of contract after being replaced in an advertising campaign, but has had his case dismissed.
Stein, who starred in US television show Seinfeld and 1980s comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, sued Kyocera Mita after being hired to front its campaign for new printers in the USA, both on television adverts and in keynote speeches. Stein’s controversial views on global warming led to the OEM cancelling his contract, and replacing him with a man who both looked and sounded like Stein.
However, The Hollywood Reporter stated that California Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Allen White ruled that his lawsuit was a “legal manoeuvre intended to impinge free speech”, dismissing all but one of Stein’s nine claims.
The one claim that will go forward is Stein’s allegation that Kyocera Mita replaced him with a “similar-looking economics professor”. He had claimed that his “freedom to speak publicly was at stake” due to the OEM’s decision, but the judge found against him.
Kyocera Mita had brought an anti-SLAPP lawsuit motion against Stein, which attempted to strike the lawsuit as it “interfered with its First Amendment rights on a matter of public concern”. The judge found that Stein’s claims of restriction of his views could be just as applicable to Kyocera Mita, adding that the OEM “had a constitutional right not to be associated with Plaintiff, whose views on global warning as being the act of God were different from that which Kyocera wished to espouse, i.e., that global warming was man-made”.
Categories : Rank 3
Tags : Beyond Remanufacturing Legal North America
Over one million counterfeit products seized in UAE by HP
May 8, 2012
Raids conducted by HP in the United Arab Emirates sees over one million counterfeit printing products seized since last year.
The anti-counterfeit raids have been conducted after co-ordination with HP, which has worked with law enforcement agencies in the region as part of its anti-counterfeit programme, reports ITP.net.
The OEM’s programme has “conducted nearly 1,000 investigations in the EMEA region in the past four years”, resulting in nearly eight million counterfeit products being seized and more than 600 enforcement actions.
In February, one investigation alone saw “320,000 counterfeit flat boxes, more than 35,000 finished fake print cartridges, over 24,000 empty laser print cartridges and 20,000 counterfeit laser security labels” seized from various interconnected companies in Dubai.
Amin Mortazavi, General Manager of Imaging and Printing Group, HP Middle East, commented: “HP appreciates the cooperation of the Dubai Police and its continued prosecution of counterfeiters who try to defraud innocent customers […] we look forward to further collaborations to eliminate fake products to ensure that people receive genuine products of original quality and reliability.”
Categories : Rank 3
Memjet partners with OEMs at drupa 2012
May 4, 2012
The Lomond EvoJet Office 2
The company has agreed deals with Océ and Toshiba as well as a host of other technology companies at the show in Düsseldorf.
A press release from MarketWatch reports that Memjet’s presence at the show, which started 3 May and runs through into next week, includes demonstrating its pre-existing technology, such as the EvoJet and the Excelgraphix 4200, as well as showcasing the new partnerships.
In its agreement with Océ, Memjet has entered into a “technical” partnership surrounding a large or wide-format colour printer concept, which Memjet claims will “change the landscape of digital large format colour printing”, under the name Project Velocity. The concept technology is on show at Océ’s parent company Canon’s booth at the show, and allows 15 times faster prints at 1600 x 900 dpi, with around 500 of these able to be printed per hour.
The company has also partnered with Toshiba, with whom it will be manufacturing MFPs that utilise the Memjet printhead technology. The MFP will contain a scanner, copier and colour printer with print speeds of 60ppm. Other partnerships include those with digital printing manufacturer Delphax, whose elan 500 digital colour print system also contains Memjet’s printhead innovations.
Two other technology manufacturers, Colordyne and Astro Machine, have also presented their Memjet-enhanced devices at drupa. Colordyne’s CDT-1600 PC Sprint, a high speed production printing system, aims to offer the Memjet technology to production printing companies, whilst Astro Machine’s AstroJet M-Series of letter and production printers were to be displayed on Memjet’s booth.
Xante and Lomond’s printers, the Excelgraphix 4200 and the EvoJet range of printers, were also displayed at the show, and Lomond’s newer models in the EvoJet Office range in particular were showcased by the London-based company.
Len Lauer, President and CEO of Memjet, stated: “Memjet’s focus has been on growing and liberating customers across the printing spectrum through the continuous evolution of technologies that power printers far beyond what traditional markets have come to know and expect.
“This is our first time at drupa and we are honored to be announcing new partnerships and seeing the latest Memjet-powered solutions from many of the most innovative OEMs in the printing industry, including Océ, Toshiba TEC, Delphax, Xante, Colordyne, Astro Machine Corporation, and Lomond. We are pleased to be showcasing partner printing solutions for multiple markets and applications.”
Categories : Rank 3
Tags : Events Memjet Technology
Scientists develop ‘printable’ speaker
May 3, 2012
A team of German scientists have developed the world’s first printable speaker, which will be displayed at the drupa tradeshow this month.
The Local.de reports that scientists at the Institute for Print and Media Technology at Chemnitz University of Technology have developed the printable speakers through the process of “printing layers of polymers and conductive chemicals onto a single piece of paper”. The speakers were also presented to visitors at the drupa show in Dusseldorf last month.
The team had been working on the project for two and a half years before making a successful prototype, and the finished product could become a “viable, cheaper alternative” to normal speakers as “polymers are cheap to make in big batches”. The only downside so far is that the speakers lack the ability to project deep bass sounds, though this is being worked on.
The speakers are highly flexible, and each is even able to “produce a better sound when it is being bent”, according to the researchers. The concept of “intelligent packaging”, whereby the paper could be used in a commercial sense, has also been mooted as a possible venture for the technology.
Project member Dr. Georg Schmidt described how the system works: “A cable is used to run music from a computer or MP3 player, which causes the printed layers to vibrate against each other and push the sound out.
“As soon as we had them working we used them to listen to the radio all the time in our office. They can create sound up to 80 decibels, so more than loud enough to hear inside.”
Categories : Rank 3
Tags : Beyond Remanufacturing Technology
US remanufacturer employs war veterans
May 2, 2012
Olympic Printer Resources adds new veteran to its staff, with eight of its 11 employees former armed forces members.
Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal reports that Mark Witherell, a retired Navy Master Chief Electronics Technician, has been appointed by the company to head its printer repair services department.
Witherell previously served in the US Navy’s Submarine Force, and joins seven other war veterans at the company, which remanufactures toner cartridges and offers laser printer repairs. Company President Jeff Petersen is himself a graduate of the US Naval Academy, and served as a nuclear submarine officer in the Cold War.
The company began in 1993 under the ownership of retired Coast Guard Pete DeBoer, and Petersen stated that he prefers to hire veterans when possible, adding: “Over three-fourths of our staff members have served our country in the armed forces.
“My experience is that employees with a military service background are conscientious, have a proven ability to learn new skills and concepts, have good attention to detail, and can be trusted to do a good job right the first time.”
David Lucas, co-owner, is also a retired Navy warrant officer, and agreed with Petersen’s perspective, stating: “Based on their service experience we find that our veteran employees are mission-oriented, have integrity, and really get the concept of teamwork.”
Categories : Rank 3
Tags : Beyond Remanufacturing Business USA
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