What the Supreme Court Lexmark Ruling Means for Sellers of Ink Cartridge Refills

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The Supreme Court of the United States made a ruling on Tuesday that was great news for sellers of ink cartridge refills.

What the Supreme Court Lexmark Ruling Means for Sellers of Ink Cartridge Refills

The ruling from the Supreme Court states that Lexmark isn’t able to sue sellers of ink cartridge refills for patent infringement. The case involved Impression Products, a company in West Virginia that sells ink cartridges after refilling them.

In the ruling, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said that Lexmark can’t control what other companies do with their ink cartridges once they have been sold. The judge compared it to an automaker attempting to sue a repair shop over work it had done on a car.

The ruling does say that Lexmark can sue customers for getting the refills due to them breaching contract. However, it is unlikely that this will happen. Impression Products praised the decision from the Supreme Court and Lexmark said it was disappointed by it, reports Fortune.

While the Supreme Court ruling on the Lexmark case is a win for ink cartridge refill companies, it could also have other effects. A major area that the ruling could come to affect is digital goods.

Digital goods are currently sold to customers, but modifying or reselling them typically isn’t allowed. This brings up the idea that the good doesn’t actually belong to the customer. However, a similar ruling to the Lexmark one could make it so that owners of those goods could do what they want with them because they truly belongs to them, Washington Post notes.


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