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US Supreme Court Protects Consumers' Right To Refill Ink Cartridges In Precedent-Setting Lexmark vs Impression Case (hothardware.com)
The U.S. Supreme Court said on Tuesday companies give up their patent rights when they sell an item, in a ruling that puts new limits on businesses' ability to prevent their products from being resold at a discount. The ruling is a defeat for Lexmark International, which was trying to stop refurbished versions of its printer cartridges from undercutting its U.S. sales. It's also a blow to companies like HP and Canon that sell their printers for a relatively low cost with the idea that they will recoup money on sales of replacement cartridges. From a report: Lexmark originally set its sights on Impression Products, a small company that specializes in remanufacturing print cartridges for resale at prices much lower than what a customer would pay for a "genuine" Lexmark product. These cartridges often have no noticeable difference in performance compared to genuine ink or toner cartridges -- the only real difference is that customers can save a lot of money by going the remanufactured route. This secondary market for cartridges not only has implications for regular Joes looking to save a buck, but also businesses that are always looking to cut costs.
Now, what will the SCOTUS say about the right to repair for farming machinery from John Deere (if I remember correctly)?
If you want to learn about a really interesting aspect of the "first sale doctrine" and how it applies to software, you should have a look at "Vernor vs Autodesk" in the USA and compare it to "Oracle vs UsedSoft" in the EU. Basically, in the USA the courts determined that if a company sells you software, but in their terms & conditions claim that they are merely granting you a license, then you can't resell the software b/c you aren't considered to own it. In the EU however, if a company sells you a permanent life-time license in exchange for a one-time fee, the courts determined that you aren't merely licensing that software, you own it and you are allowed to resell it.
I think these different rulings haven't been fully appreciated yet. For example, if you buy Apple's Final Cut X for $299, you should be allowed to resell that software if you live in the EU, but there is currently no way to transfer licenses between users, preventing users from reselling it. It seems to me that by preventing users from reselling their software, Apple (and the Google Play Store) are probably violating sharia law on this matter.
That was my initial reaction too, but this is doubtless going to be the decision that pushing them over to licensing/renting cartridges, rather than selling them. The decision itself says that if Lexmark wants to enforce these sorts of restrictions, it can't do so via patent law after the initial sale, but it can do so via contract law. Which is basically just a way of saying, "Lexmark, follow the software industry's lead if you want to screw customers".
Again, the decision was a good one, but I don't look forward to what comes next.
That was actually my first thought as well. Business and consumers are both going to hesitate when required to sign a contract to buy a printer or ink cartridge I think. Hit the cash register and the cashier whips out a contract for you to sign? In this case I think free market principles will make that position untenable.
No, but neither do I pay any attention to the terms of a contract of adhesion, one I can't negotiate, gives me no rights I don't already have, and which I don't agree to.
Shrink-wrap licenses ostensibly use copyright law to force a contract, but I consider copying software from the distribution media to the computer, then into memory to run it, as fair use - that's the sole purpose of the software, and it would otherwise be useless.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Another terrifying future I can sort of foresee: ink with a sort of unique, DNA-like signature, to be detected by the machine.
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