Samsung wins German reseller case

October 30, 2015

District Court I Munich

The Munich District Court has ruled that four toner cartridge resellers distributed unlicensed, non-original equipment that infringed the OEM’s patent on cartridges for use in the CLP-620.

Each of the resellers is ordered to stop selling the relevant products and to recall those distributed since 24 July, 2013, Wirth Consulting reported.

The OEM said genuine Samsung toner cartridges should have a label that changes colour when seen from different angles, while the embossed characters should have a “distinguishable texture”.

A 2014 study by Buyers Laboratory found that genuine Samsung toners print nearly twice the pages of “non-genuine counterparts”, with the “genuine toners” less likely to smudge and are certified for environmental safety, Samsung Tomorrow said.

The patent in question was the EP 1 975 744, which The Recycler reported in December 2013 had also been used to bring cases against seven German resellers, while in October 2014 Samsung took up “substantive proceedings” against five more German companies for infringing the same patent. The new companies were not named “out of consideration”, although four of these distributors were “customers of HQ Cartridges”, whose patent attorneys took up their legal representation.

David SW Song, Senior Vice President of Samsung Printing Solutions, said his company was pleased with the judgment: “The lawsuits are intended to protect our intellectual property rights, the rights and interests of consumers, and those of companies that produce and sell legitimately manufactured toner cartridges.

“We will continue to take action against resellers that sell illegal, unlicensed toners that are compatible with our products.”