Canon: as one case closes, another begins
October 3, 2018
The legal train keeps rolling on for Canon as the OEM announces the conclusion of one US patent infringement lawsuit and the filing of another.
The case that has drawn to a close is Canon’s long-standing legal battle against General Plastic Industrial, Co. Ltd and Color Imaging, Inc in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
As Canon explained, this case focused around the defendants’ sales of toner bottles for use in certain Canon imageRUNNER office multifunction devices.
A jury trial was held in June 2017, which concluded with the jury finding that both of the defendants wilfully infringed Canon’s U.S. Patent No. 7,647,012. After the trial, the Northern District of Georgia court issued orders permanently enjoining the defendants from selling the products found to infringe and enhancing the jury’s damages award due to the defendants’ wilful infringement.
To resolve what remained of the lawsuit, General Plastic agreed to pay Canon an undisclosed amount, and both defendants stipulated to a Consent Judgment and Permanent Injunction from the Northern District of Georgia, prohibiting them from making, using, selling and offering for sale in the United States, and from importing into the United States, the toner bottles that were found to infringe Canon’s patent. Both defendants also agreed not to infringe any patent in the subject patent family.
As this case drew to a close, a new case began for the OEM, with Canon filing a complaint for patent infringement in the US District Court for the District of Delaware against Do It Wiser LLC, which also conducts business under the name Image Toner.
The case is centred around Canon’s U.S. Patent No. 9,581,958 B2. Canon is alleging the infringement of the ‘958 patent by Do It Wiser, saying the defendant has “directly infringed and is directly infringing the ‘958 patent by making, using, selling, and/or offering to sell in the United States and/or importing into the United States toner cartridges embodying the invention defined by one or more claims of the ’958 patent”.
Canon is also accusing Do It Wiser of indirectly infringing the patent “by virtue of its inducement of direct infringement of that patent by customers who use Defendant’s toner cartridges” in a number of HP laser beam printers.
Canon is seeking the preliminary and permanent enjoinment of Do It Wiser “from further acts of infringement” and wishes Do It Wiser to pay damages and all of Canon’s legal costs incurred in the pursuit of this lawsuit.
Canon demands a jury trial in this case, which was filed on 26 September 2018.
Categories : World Focus
Tags : Canon Color Imaging Do It Wiser GPI Lawsuit Patent infringement USA
