[Leica] Epson printers (news from Cone)

[dlridings at gmail.com (Daniel Ridings)]

There is some information here that could be helpful, among other
things, an address to the officer that President Bush has delegated
the Epson issue to.

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  Dear Piezography Customer,

ACTIONS BY EPSON DIRECTLY AFFECT YOUR PURCHASE OF DESKTOP PRODUCTS IN THE 
USA.

In 2005, EPSON began a series of lawsuits against manufacturers of
desktop cartridges that EPSON claimed infringed EPSON patents. EPSON
won by jury or by default in several of these lawsuits and have been
awarded broad patent rights. The end result of that is an ITC
directive that is explained by EPSON here:
http://itc.epson.com/index.html.

On October 19, 2007 the U.S. International Trade Commission ("ITC")
issued a Final Determination that found that all of the more than 750
accused cartridges for EPSON inkjet printers infringe one or more of
eleven EPSON patents. The ITC issued a General Exclusion Order
prohibiting all importers from importing infringing cartridges and
Cease and Desist Orders that prohibit the named respondents from
selling cartridges imported before the ITC Order. The ITC also ordered
a bond of $13.60 per imported cartridge for imports during the 60 day
Presidential Review period.

Necessarily, we have stopped importing desktop cartridges and we have
only a small remaining inventory for our desktop users in the USA,
which we are closing out at half-price to rid our existing
inventories. You can look at our close out inventory by clicking here.
Desktop users outside the USA can continue to buy our cartridges as
the ITC ruling only affects the USA.

We can only make the suggestion to our desktop users that they
immediately investigate refilling their carts, using bulk ink delivery
systems and bottles, or upgrading to a medium or large format printer.
To hoard remaining supplies is not an option that will allow you to
use our products in the long-term, and you really need to act now in
order to insure that you have a method of dispensing our inks into
your printers. There are many sources for refilling supplies and
instructions, as well as chip resetters, and bulk ink systems.

If you are a large format user, EPSON has made it clear that they
intend to prove that third-party cartridges infringe their large
format cart patents in current litigation. There is no way to know the
success of this until the outcome that may be 12 months away or
shorter or longer. We can only make the suggestion to you to invest in
lifetime refill carts.


A CALL TO ACTION.

This is of course alarming news for customers of any third party ink
cartridges. We have been in touch with our Congressman and Senators,
who are trying to intercede on our behalf with the President of the
USA before he signs this into law. We have learned from our
Congressman that President Bush has given that authority over to his
International Trade Representative, Susan Schwab.

The ITC's Final Determination will enter into effect unless there are
"compelling policy reasons for disapproval," which will be determined
by United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab in the coming days:

Susan Schwab
Office of the United States Trade Representative
600 17th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20508
United States of America

The phone number for the trade office is 202-395-3063

Please reference International Trade Commission matter 337-TA-565

We would ask you to call or write to US Trade Representative Susan
Schwab. Let her know how you would be affected if she allows the ITC's
determination to go forward. For example, there are not any
non-infringing cartridges available to us because of the broad patents
and the way that EPSON has designed their printers. If you are not
able to purchase cartridges and you are affected, you should
communicate how this affects you. If you do not have an alternative,
and your livelihood is affected, these are important issues to
mention. In the entire history of the ITC, only five rulings have not
been approved. We want to believe that this will be the sixth. But it
needs your help. We have done all that we can at this point. Please do
not misunderstand that we think patents are unimportant or should not
be protected. Rather, we side with current European Union thought that
is modeled after the US Sherman Anti-Trust Act, that a product should
not be given a monopoly if patents are created to prevent competition.
While anti-trust and environmental law is strengthening in the EU, it
is being terribly eroded in the USA. The USA does not have
"free-trade" and that is often surprising to Europeans who remember
that we invented that notion.


DESKTOP USERS ARE IMMEDIATELY AFFECTED: CONSIDER BUYING A BULK INKS KIT NOW.

Prior to Dec 19, you may be able to do things that will allow for you
to continue your relationship with Piezography products for the
desktop printers. This ruling only affects desktop cartridges and we
only supply desktop cartridges for the following EPSON printers: 1160,
1200, 1280, R200 family, R800/R1800, 2100/2200, 2400.

You can move from desktop cartridges for your printer to a bulk ink
system that allows you to feed it from bottled ink. Act soon, as it is
believed that all exporters have ceased their shipments into the USA
awaiting outcome of the Presidential Review. You can find these by
clicking here. We will be adding more large format refill carts as
they become available and eliminating desktop systems as inventories
become depleted. The reason is that we will always sell at least
bottled inks into the USA. Once you have a CIS system, you can
purchase a starter system of inks with a discount of 15%. The coupon
code is [ PIEZO ] and the savings is 15% for Piezography K6/7 bottles
by clicking here and PiezoTone bottles which you can find here. You
enter this code into the shopping cart during the checkout procedure.
This 15% off code is good until Dec. 19.


EPSON HAS THEIR SIGHTS ON LARGE FORMAT CARTS.

EPSON is now in court with large format cartridge manufacturers. We
have a refill cartridge system for the 4800, 7800, 9800, 3000, 7000,
7500 and Roland printers. We will soon have one for your 4000, 7600,
9000, 9500 and 9600 printers. You can expect Epson to attempt to shut
out third party large format cartridges in the near future, and you do
have time. But you can also begin saving your ink costs by buying in
bulk and helping the environment by not throwing away carts. We have
lifetime refill cartridges for Ultrachrome K3 printers including new
ConeColor replacement color inks. You can use these refill carts for
Piezography inks in your K3 printer. Those are available by clicking
here.


USERS OUTSIDE THE USA: HOW ARE YOU AFFECTED?

These actions by EPSON only affect cartridges coming into the USA. It
does not affect our ability to sell outside the USA. We have a growing
network of dealers outside the USA. We also have cartridge fulfillment
facilities outside the USA so we do not need to import cartridges in
order to fill them for EU and other countries. However, we will not be
able to sell desktop cartridges even to our non-USA customers. Desktop
cartridges are being closed-out.

WHAT'S NEXT AMERICA?

Perhaps, those that were using third-party solutions will become the
nexus for change in the USA in terms of the environment. It's alarming
to find out that InfoTrends just published data that 80% of all new
cartridges sold in the USA go into landfill. It is apparent how few
EPSON carts are being recycled because of the difficulty in recycling
EPSON manufactured carts. The third-party cartridges which were being
sold for EPSON printers, and are now eliminated, were refill friendly
cartridges. 10% of the oil being imported into the USA comes in the
form of the plastic used in the US$32Billion dollar market of inkjet
and laser cartridges. All that plastic is piling up in our landscape,
and will take up to 1,000 years to bio-degrade. Please consider bulk
ink delivery products as soon as possible. There is information
directly on our website. You will be helping yourself and the ecology
which you live with.

We will keep you posted.

Thanks and best regards,

Jon Cone
Vermont PhotoInkjet
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