Ricoh and MASA go to court

December 2, 2020

The complaint was filed on 23 November by Midwest Athletics and Sports Alliance LLC against Ricoh, alleging patent infringement.

MASA (Midwest Athletics and Sports Alliance LLC)  filed the complaint against Ricoh on 23 November in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, .

MASA alleges that Ricoh’s Pro C5300S/5310S, Pro 8300S/8310/8310S/8320/8320S, Pro C7200/ C7200S/C7200E/C7200X/C7210/C7210S /C7210X/C7210SX, and Pro C9200/C9210 devices infringe one or more of MASA’s patents.

The MASA patents in question are US Patents:

US6,718,285 – Was granted in April 2004 and assigned to MASA in November 2017. The first worldwide litigation began in December 2017.

• AbstractOperator Replaceable Component (ORC) devices are employed; that enable an operator that is not a skilled field engineer or service technician, to perform maintenance on a digital printer, resulting in significantly higher uptime for the press.

US 7,502,582 – Was granted in March 2009 and assigned to MASA in November 2017. The first worldwide litigation began in December 2017.

• Abstract: A tandem color electrostatographic printer apparatus has five or more color printing stations or modules for applying respective color separation toner images to a receiver member to form a pentachrome color image in a single pass. A fuser station fuses the pentachrome color image. A clear toner overcoat is then applied to the fused pentachrome toner image and enhanced glossing of the image is provided by a belt glosser to improve color gamut.

US7,720,425 – Was granted in May 2010 and assigned to MASA in November 2017. The first worldwide litigation began in December 2017.

• Abstract: A tandem color electrostatographic printer apparatus has five or more color printing stations or modules for applying respective color separation toner images to a receiver member to form a pentachrome color image in a single pass.  A fuser station fuses the pentachrome color image. A clear toner overcoat is then applied to the fused pentachrome toner image and enhanced glossing of the image is provided by a belt glosser to improve color gamut.

MASA claims in its complaint that “As a result of Defendant’s unlawful activities, MASA has suffered and will continue to suffer irreparable harm for which there is no adequate remedy at law. Accordingly, MASA is entitled to preliminary and/or permanent injunctive relief.”

MASA demands a jury trial.

This is not the first time MASA has filed a lawsuit against Ricoh, in 2018 the company filed complaints against Ricoh and Xerox in Nebraska.

Categories : Around the Industry

Tags : IP Lawsuit Patent troll Ricoh