Earlier this month, Memjet filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. The lawsuit alleges infringement of eight Memjet patents related to its page-wide “waterfall” printing technology. Specifically, the complaint asserts infringement of the following patents:
• Ink Jet Fault Tolerance Using Adjacent Nozzles
• Inkjet Pagewidth Printer For High Volume Pagewidth Printing
• Modular Printhead Assembly With A Carrier Of A Metal Alloy
• Printhead Assembly with Stacked Ink Distribution Sheets
• Inkjet Printhead Having Rows Of Printhead Segments
• Printhead Assembly With Laminated Ink Distribution Stack
• Laminated Ink Supply Structure Mounted In Ink Distribution Arrangement Of An Inkjet Printer
• Inkjet Printer With Web Feed Maintenance Assembly
The lawsuit seeks both to prohibit HP from its unauthorized use of Memjet’s patented page-wide waterfall technology, and to recover damages resulting from HP’s use of that patented technology in its PageWide printer products – including the Pro X generation of office printers, the T-Series commercial presses, and PageWide XL series products. HP has stated its intention to use its PageWide Technology across its printing portfolio, including in future wide-format and 3D printers.
In a statement, Memjet added: “Memjet has invested substantial resources in the research and development of its page-wide waterfall technology over the last decade. Memjet has protected that investment through the development of its significant patent portfolio, including several thousand U.S. and foreign patents in the page-wide inkjet printing space.”
We’ll be following this story and will report on any further developments right here.