A la guerre comme à la guerre! - PART 2

SOME REVELATIONS ABOUT THE AFTERMARKET IN EUROPE AND ESPECIALLY IN EASTERN EUROPE:

Part 2:

On-ground battles

OEMs took a dramatic turn in trying to win the war. They do not mind investing in new projects that would stop recyclers and compatible equipment manufacturers from imitating their products and launching fully compatible consumables on the market, thus depriving the OEMS of the long-desired fabulous profits.

As it was described earlier in the article, the OEMs file suits against the companies that bite too much from the pie! In some cases trials turned out to be success, but sometimes, and the number of such cases grows, trials are ended by recyclers’ victory. The truth is that in the majority of countries the activity of OEMs, recyclers and compatible consumables manufacturers is judged from the standpoint of loyal competition. Therefore, if the recycler does succeed in persuading the court that the whole argument is nothing, but a pure competition, the recycler wins. It is not the battle between two companies, but it is the lawyers’ competences of being able to tackle the competition aspect correctly.

Another front that OEMs are active on is that great efforts are employed to technically exclude any possibility to restore or produce compatible consumables. OEMs are currently investing huge funds in creating “smart” printing equipment that recognizes only “own” consumables. In other word, the companies start producing printers and copiers with chips that recognize only OEM-made consumables and do not work when the consumable does not come from the “mother” factory. Another idea that came into the minds of the OEMs is that it would be great to use laser technology to be able to read invisible information on the consumable material: an invisible barcode. The third idea that is becoming popular is to follow the example of software companies and equal consumables to software. That would mean that consumables will become products with intellectual property rights and will be sold with serial numbers and other license-for-use information. These attacks could make the position of certain re-industry companies rather shaky and unsteady. The soothing aspect is that such technologies are a way too expensive and will be the realm of threat in a decade or two.