4 ms·

HP and others have a lot of patents in that space with an army of lawyers to defend them unfortunately. It would have to avoid using anything coming close to th

HP and others have a lot of patents in that space with an army of lawyers to defend them unfortunately. It would have to avoid using anything coming close to these patents...

Harelin 10y ago
Patents expire, and printers are fairly old technology, so perhaps there is to be a printer revolution in the not so distant future?
- cookiecaper 10y ago
  Unfortunately, the inapplicability of intellectual property doesn't seem to matter much. They probably wouldn't use an expired patent in a suit, but many of these places just make minor tweaks and file for a new patent on the "new invention". There's enough grey area that you have to go to court to hash out whether or not the technology is infringing. Opposing IP lawyers working for one of the largest media companies in the world have openly told an associate that while the thing they C&D'd her on may have had a good chance to be ruled non-infringing, she should comply with the C&D anyway since she would be financially ruined by a lawsuit, win or lose (realistically, she wouldn't be able to win because she'd run out of money WAY before the case even approached a conclusion -- one of big companies' favorite strategies is to "starve out" their legal opponents by making the case as expensive and convoluted as possible).
gioele 10y ago
I would be very happy to have a libre SW/HW BW printer that uses the technology of 1996 and must, then be based only on expired patents. Both '96 laser and inkjet would be OK for my limited use. For example, the OKIPAGE 4w costed $300 at the time and was a compact, fast 600 dpi BW printer. http://my.okidata.com/MarkInfo.nsf/DocID/C9A90C0CF5943EBB8525636C0050C0D6 http://my.okidata.com/MarkInfo.nsf/DocID/C9A90C0CF5943EBB852... I think that laser technology of the 90s was simple enough that it could be reimplemented these days without too many problems. And I will be happy to pay €300 for a provably open laser printer that does do tricks like simulating empty toners or printing tracing dots https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-d...
jimmydddd 10y ago
Patent attorney here. I used to do a lot of patents for the printer cartridges. The printer companies use the "give away the razor, make money on the razor blades" business model. The make very little on the printer, and make a killing on the cartridges. Thus, they spend a lot of effort trying to keep generic cartridges out of the market.
swiley 10y ago
Honestly I'd be pretty happy with some kind of open source impact printer. All I use them for is putting words on a page.

HP and others have a lot of patents in that space with an army of lawyers to defend them unfortunately. It would have to avoid using anything coming close to these patents...

Harelin 10y ago

Patents expire, and printers are fairly old technology, so perhaps there is to be a printer revolution in the not so distant future?

cookiecaper 10y ago
Unfortunately, the inapplicability of intellectual property doesn't seem to matter much. They probably wouldn't use an expired patent in a suit, but many of these places just make minor tweaks and file for a new patent on the "new invention". There's enough grey area that you have to go to court to hash out whether or not the technology is infringing. Opposing IP lawyers working for one of the largest media companies in the world have openly told an associate that while the thing they C&D'd her on may have had a good chance to be ruled non-infringing, she should comply with the C&D anyway since she would be financially ruined by a lawsuit, win or lose (realistically, she wouldn't be able to win because she'd run out of money WAY before the case even approached a conclusion -- one of big companies' favorite strategies is to "starve out" their legal opponents by making the case as expensive and convoluted as possible).

gioele 10y ago

I would be very happy to have a libre SW/HW BW printer that uses the technology of 1996 and must, then be based only on expired patents. Both '96 laser and inkjet would be OK for my limited use. For example, the OKIPAGE 4w costed $300 at the time and was a compact, fast 600 dpi BW printer. http://my.okidata.com/MarkInfo.nsf/DocID/C9A90C0CF5943EBB8525636C0050C0D6 http://my.okidata.com/MarkInfo.nsf/DocID/C9A90C0CF5943EBB852... I think that laser technology of the 90s was simple enough that it could be reimplemented these days without too many problems. And I will be happy to pay €300 for a provably open laser printer that does do tricks like simulating empty toners or printing tracing dots https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-d...

jimmydddd 10y ago

Patent attorney here. I used to do a lot of patents for the printer cartridges. The printer companies use the "give away the razor, make money on the razor blades" business model. The make very little on the printer, and make a killing on the cartridges. Thus, they spend a lot of effort trying to keep generic cartridges out of the market.

swiley 10y ago

Honestly I'd be pretty happy with some kind of open source impact printer. All I use them for is putting words on a page.