The latest twists in Canon’s legal labyrinth
March 27, 2019
The OEM has been stepping up its campaign against patent infringement still further this week, announcing a new legal case and the filing of two more Report Infringement Forms with Amazon.
As well as the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against LD Products, Canon has also announced this week that the District Court Düsseldorf has granted the OEM a preliminary injunction against Hamle GmbH, doing business as “hamle,” “liondo” and “merotoner,” as well as against its managing director.
The preliminary injunction is based on the infringement of the German portion of Canon’s European patent EP 2 087 407 relating to a drum unit and a process cartridge. The preliminary injunction enjoins Hamle GmbH from offering and distributing laser toner cartridges comprising a drum unit with a certain coupling member, via, for example, www.amazon.de. The infringing cartridges can replace the OEM cartridge model HP CF226A, which is compatible with HP laser beam printers.
Furthermore, the preliminary injunction contains a claim for sequestration, so the infringing cartridges have been handed over to a bailiff until the matter is finally solved.
The Defendants have the option to file an objection against the preliminary injunction. However, as service on the Defendants was effected, Canon can enforce this decision.
Canon has also reported the filing of two more sets of Report Infringement Forms. The first set of forms is with Amazon.com seeking removal of Amazon.com listings for certain toner cartridges sold by Quicktoner for use in HP laser beam printers.
Canon’s Report Infringement Forms alleged that certain model CE255X toner cartridges sold by Quicktoner via Amazon.com infringed Canon’s U.S. Patent Nos. 8,280,278; 8,630,564; 8,682,215; 8,688,008; and 8,676,090. Canon requested that Amazon remove Quicktoner’s listings for this product, namely, Quicktoner’s listings with Amazon Standard Identification Numbers B01MT9WC62, B01N2385R6, B07JK5HTBG, B01MS88YRM, B01N5Q6E7I, B01N238506, B07JK4TXF1, B07JK4MY4W and B01VBVKADX.
At the time of this announcement, the above-identified Quicktoner listings were no longer available on Amazon.com.
The second form was filed with Amazon ES based on the alleged use of claims 1 and 2 of the Spanish portion of Canon’s European Patent EP 1 977 289 (“EP ‘289”) regarding the cartridge model “CB540A” offered by Brama Hispania S.L. under the ASIN B00DYVTLYI.
Afterwards, Amazon took down the respective product. This product is compatible with the OEM HP cartridge model and provides inter alia a non-OEM housing and a non-OEM force receiving device according to claim 1 of EP ‘289. Furthermore, it comprises an elastic portion according to claim 2 of EP ‘289.
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