Editor’s Note: Achim Carius, managing director of the German reprographics association Motio, has been following the patent fight between Memjet and HP in Germany closely. The legal battle is also brewing in the United States – read about the situation by clicking here – but below is a summarized translation of a press release Carius issued last week on the situation in Germany.
June 9 Hearing Just in Time for DRUPA: Memjet Seeks to Prevent PageWide Sales
The patent war of the two printhead manufacturers Memjet and Hewlett Packard now goes into the next level of escalation. The main hearing before the higher regional court (OLG) will be in Munich on June 9. The patent expert Konrad Retzer will preside as judge.
Memjet has continued to attack its printhead competitor HP and achieved a media success by securing the hearing right at the time of the DRUPA tradeshow. Memjet had appealed the lifting of the injunction that had prohibited PageWide sales in Germany, and that appeal will now be heard in the higher regional court in Munich.
Retzer is a heavyweight among German patent judges. The showdown of the US printing
Achim Carius
Achim Carius
giants will take place at 1 p.m. in the boardroom E09 under case No. AZ 6U 897/16. A large contingent of international patent lawyers is expected. Anxiously watching will be the leaders of Xerox, Canon and RTI/Rigoli.
"Should Memjet succeed in enacting a ban on the HP PageWide printer, large format printer manufacturers Canon and Xerox could use this as a sales advantage. Also, the Japanese LFP printer producer KIP would also profit," says the managing director of the motio network, Achim Carius, a lawyer from Frankfurt am Main.
Want to read more? Click below for previous articles:
A translation of Achim Carius’ initial articles on the situation
A translation of a Q&A with a German patent lawyer about why this case is being heard in Germany