Looks like the inkjet business is becoming a cloak and dagger industry with Spies and the like.
Epson Printer cartridges have long been a subject of legal dispute, to clamp down on knock offs.
As reported in the Wall street journal It is rare that such fights include allegations of corporate espionage.
In an Oregon federal court, the Green Project Inc., a small ink-cartridge reseller, claims that Seiko Epson Corp., sent an investigator disguised as a customer to snoop around the company.
The alleged incident began with a lawsuit that Seiko Epson filed in April against Green Project, which refills and resells old ink cartridges, and other cartridge resellers.
In recent years, Seiko Epson has taken legal action against companies that import cartridges to sell in the U.S. In 2007, responding to a complaint by the Japanese company, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that certain imported cartridges violate Seiko Epson patents and ordered vendors to stop importing them. In a followup ruling last year, the ITC said that imports of certain “remanufactured” cartridges also violate Epson patents.
In April, Seiko Epson sued a number of companies that it alleged were violating the import ruling. One was Green Project.
Joseph Wu, Green Project’s founder and president, denied the company sells cartridges that were originally sold overseas. The ITC ruling stipulated that only cartridges originally sold in the U.S. can be refilled for resale in the U.S. Wu said Green Project buys used printer cartridges that were sold in the U.S. from brokers ; that they are then shipped to China, where they are refilled and sent back to the U.S. for sale, he said. The brokers guarantee in writing that the cartridges are collected in the U.S.
Last month, Mr. Wu’s company countersued Seiko Epson, claiming that Mr. Seitz’s (Spy) actions constituted trespassing and theft of trade secrets. The suit seeks to prevent Seiko Epson from using the information collected, as well as restitution. It also seeks a declaration that certain Seiko Epson patents are invalid.
Mr. Seitz’s “misrepresentation and subsequent entry into Green Project’s warehouse constitutes trespass,” the company’s lawyer wrote in a July 27 court filing. Green Project also alleges that Mr. Seitz improperly accessed company trade secrets when he requested a price list.
Mr. Barza said that while Mr. Seitz has “done investigations before” for Epson, he is an independent contractor, not an Epson employee.
“There’s a raging debate” in the legal community over ethical guidelines for information gathering, said Patrick Robbins, a defense lawyer at Shearman & Sterling LLP who sometimes uses private detectives.
Mr. Robbins said courts have offered little clarity on whether it is acceptable to use deception to obtain information.
Lets all keep our eyes and ears open for the next chapter in this espionage thriller.
Filed under: Industry News | Tagged: Epson, Epson Remanufactured Inkjet Cartridges, spy |
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