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Why Patent Law Shouldn't Block the Sale of Used Tech Products
An anonymous reader writes: Lexmark is best known for its printers, but even more important to its business is toner. Toner cartridges are Lexmark's lifeblood, and they've been battling hard in court to protect their cashflow. The NY Times has published an editorial arguing that one of their recent strategies is bogus: making patent infringement claims on companies who refill used cartridges. Think about that, for a moment: Lexmark says that by taking one of their old, empty cartridges, refilling it with toner, and then selling it somehow infringes upon their patents to said cartridges. "This case raises important questions about the reach of American patent law and how much control a manufacturer can exert after its products have been lawfully sold. Taken to their logical conclusion, Lexmark's arguments would mean that producers could use patent law to dictate how things like computers, printers and other patented goods are used, changed or resold and place restrictions on international trade. That makes no sense, especially in a world where technology products and components are brought and sold numerous times, which is why the court should rule in favor of Impression." The Times paints it as the latest attack on ownership in the age of DRM.
> The only thing it "infringes" on is their profits.
Raise hand if you have used a printer in last 24 months? It starts to be kinda outdated technology already. Everything is on the web, and noone is printing web pages...
I will take that bet regarding the last "month or so". And, I'll bet that the 50% that are still using paper print less than 3 documents per month
Every day in every office in every city in every part of the world, businesses print stuff on paper.
Almost anything dealing with the law or court involves printing documents, daily if not hourly.
Real estate offices churn out so much paper that it boggles the mind.
Virtually every government office in every country on Earth prints reams of stuff daily.
You may not be in an environment where much stuff gets printed but that doesn't mean it still isn't happening all around you every day.
A few weeks ago, I looked at my checkbook and the last paper check I wrote was January. Of 2014.
And my last one was written this morning. Lots of people write checks; just because you don't doesn't mean no one else is. Seriously, lots of people have a life different from yours and mine, and that life includes printing stuff.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
It is not question of whether hard copies will be eliminated but how quickly it is finally reducing instead of a period when dot matrix printers first kicked in. One of the big wastes of paper was proof reading. Like many others I found proof reading on the screen inefficient and unreliable and needed to do it off a hard copy for any degree of accuracy, likely because of cathode ray tube displays and the visual problems they cause and this carried over into a habit even with LCD screens. I wonder how well the up and coming generation is going with proof reading on the screen rather than requiring a hard copy to check (think just there a nominal 50% reduction in paper use).
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen