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A nearly unanimous Supreme Court told Lexmark it can't use patent police force to restrict printer cartridge buyers from doing what they want with the cartridges, including refilling them or fifty-fifty selling them to cartridge manufacturers. In an opinion by Chief Simply John Roberts, "Lexmark exhausted its patent rights" once it sold the cartridge.

The case was watched closely past more printer makers. Lexmark had support from the biotechnology, drug, and agricultural industries. Tech companies, including Google and Intel, supported the cartridge re-manufacturer, Impression Products, as did makers of rebuilt or refurbished auto parts and medical devices.

Lexmark's Cheaper Cartridges Couldn't Be Refilled

Peradventure mindful that it was on difficult legal ground, Lexmark fix two prices for its cartridges. I had no lockout mechanism on the cartridge. With the other, Lexmark offered a twenty pct discount for essentially the same cartridge, except the customer had to agree to return the cartridge to Lexmark. Also, the cartridge was equipped with a microchip that (Lexmark thought) prevented the cartridge from being reused.

Impression Products, the company in the lawsuit, and others figured out how to annul the no-reuse chip, refill the cartridge, and undercut Lexmark on toll.

Lexus said on its website:

The Lexmark make means quality and reliability with every printed page. Genuine Lexmark supplies are the best option when y'all value your image. Lexmark is actively checking domestic and global markets for manufacturers and sellers whose activities undermine our reputation with counterfeit, greyness market or other products that don't laissez passer the 18-carat Lexmark test.

Manufacturers and sellers of trademark-infringing apocryphal cartridges and patent-infringing clone/uniform cartridges damage our brand by selling inferior products. Just put, if you desire the very best for your printer, employ merely the Genuine Lexmark supplies intended for your specific geographical region.

There continues to be an ongoing statement over whether refill cartridges are equal in quality to the original, and whether in some cases (typically where the cartridge does not contain the printhead) the refill, once used in a printer, compromises its print quality ever after. In that location's no question some users want the cheaper ink, at least for documents that are drafts or used in-house.

What the Court Said

Lexmark'due south contracts with customers may have been enforceable nether contract law, but the company did not retain patent rights after sale of the cartridges, Roberts said.

Roberts wrote wrote in the court findings in Impression Products v. Lexmark, 15-1189 (PDF), "Nosotros conclude that a patentee's [Lexmark'due south] determination to sell a product exhausts all of its patent rights in that item, regardless of any restrictions the patentee purports to impose or the location of the sale."

6 other justices concurred with Roberts in full, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg concurred in role, saying she agreed Lexmark patent rights ended when the cartridges were sold in the US. For foreign sales, she said Lexmark's patent right was not exhausted. Here, "patent rights" refers to restrictions Lexmark placed on the cartridges. The newest justice, Neil Gorsuch, didn't take part because arguments were heard last year, before he was confirmed and seated.

Drug and biotech companies supported Lexmark, fearing, for instance, that catheters might be washed and re-used every bit a price-cutting measure. At least that's what they say. In the US, overnice patients might balk at medical providers cutting corners on lower-toll devices. Nobody today employs unmarried-employ endoscopy tools when each one costs thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. Instead, they're sterilized.

Lexmark won't be appealing the decision considering the Supreme Court is the courtroom of last appeal.

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