Ink Refills will become illegal.

(via digg and Corante) Ink refilling is a crime. That’s according to the recent court ruling which Lexmark won. In this case, remanufacturers or printer owners may not use any form of re-filling or re-manufacturing of used printer cartridges. The box-wrap would indicate that the ink will be for “single use only” and by opening the package, it is understood that one has agreed to the terms.

Apparently this decision might become a precedent and I can feel that for some reason, this could also affect us here in the Philippines. But what about the boming business of ink-refills in the country? Not sure how that would go.

I bought two ink-refills for my old Epson printer last month and both only cost me about Php3USD 0.05INR 4EUR 0.05CNY 0.37,00. Had I bought an original ink cartridge, it would have run up to Php2,000USD 34INR 2,889EUR 32CNY 248. That’s a huge difference and a big savings from me.

If printer manufacturers like Canon, Epson and HP would only lower down their retail prices for inks, then this wouldn’t be a huge problem. For now, it’s wait and see.

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

7 Comments

retz says:

19 years ago

omg, looks like i have to buy stocks of refills. print galore pa naman ako kanina, 120 pages hehehe.
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Sassy says:

19 years ago

might be cheaper to buy a new printer when the ink goes kaput. grabe.
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quezacolt says:

18 years ago

oo nga, may nakita nga akong bagong printer na 1,100 nalang e ang original ink cartridge na epson nasa 1,200 e dun na ako sa bagong printer hehe
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One Stop Digital Hub says:

15 years ago

its hard to imagine that computer dealers and retailers already engaged in INK REFILLS which is against the term and conditions we agreed on to the products brands we sells, like EPSON, HP, LEXMARK, CANON in fare-ness to this company and the practice of business ethics.
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AnonymousFalcon says:

13 years ago

Wag kayong bibili ng refil na ink nakakasira po ito ng printer . . . . at mavovoid ang warranty kung pang personal use lang naman kayo bumili kayo ng HP Ink Advantage napaka mura ng original ink nito nasa 390 pesos lang ang blk at 390 din ang colo . . . 600pages na prpint ng blk at 250 pages naman sa color! ang model ay K209a kung AIO at K109A pag single printer. . .
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AnonymousFalcon says:

13 years ago

Meron din po si HP yung ink advantages na maganda ang feature . . . yung K510A All in One printer sya na wireless printing wireless Scanner at Eprint & Airprint Technology na kahit sa sulok ka lupalok ng mundo pwde kang magprint iiemail mo lang kasi yung printer na yun ay may sariling email address! si HP lang meron nun! ang gandahan pa napakamura ng ink atpwde pwde ito sa photo picture!
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John Ledesma says:

12 years ago

Actually nagpa-refill na ako ng ilan beses. Nakapagpakabit na rin ako ng CISS. Ang masasabi ko lang ay ang laki ng tipid ko. Sinubukan ko ang Inkrite at okay ang kanilang mga produkto.
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