Following Aster’s June 2018 announcement that its new patented dongle gear solution does not infringe Canon’s patent, the OEM has now issued confirmation of no infringement.
Aster Graphic’s new solution has been designed for cartridges for use in “all Canon and HP dongle devices” and is said by Aster to mimic “the installation and removal of the OEM cartridges.”
Aster became embroiled in a legal battle with Canon over the dongle gear solution, being named as one of the companies involved in the current ITC 337 investigation. However, the company has subsequently been awarded US patent number 9,964,920 for the dongle gear solution design, “wherein the coupling member on the cartridge is fixed, and does not incline or change distance”. Canon holds the original patents.
In June this year, breaking the news of the patent award, Aster announced that it “always respects the intellectual property of third parties and our own innovation has been a core business initiative”.
Now, Aster has also revealed that Canon has admitted to no patent infringement in its August Supplement to Joint Stipulation Regarding Representative Accused Products, admitting that Aster’s design does not infringe the OEM patent “and that the new design would not be subject to any exclusion order the ITC may issue.”
The Stipulation reads:
“Canon and Aster agree that the following products that were made available for inspection and provided to Canon’s counsel, but which Canon has not accused of infringing any of the asserted claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 9,746,826; 9,836,021; 9,841,729; 9,857,764; 9,857,765; 9,869,960; and 9,874,846, shall be outside the scope of any remedial orders that may be issued at the conclusion of the investigation:
- AN-H0505A/AN-H0280A/AN-C0119A/AN-C0120 products having the same design as the physical samples produced with Bates numbers ASTER PX001A-B;
- AN-H0505X/AN-H0280X/AN-C0119X products having the same design as the physical samples produced with Bates numbers ASTER PX002A-B;
- AN-HF226A/AN-HF226X/AN-C0052A/AN-C0052X products having the same design as the physical samples produced with Bates numbers ASTER PX003A-B;
- AN-HF287A/AN-C0041A products having the same design as the physical samples produced with Bates numbers ASTER PX004A-B;
- AN-HF287X/AN-C0041X products having the same design as the physical samples produced with Bates numbers ASTER PX005A-B;
- AN-H0255AU/AN-C0324A products having the same design as the physical samples produced with Bates numbers ASTER PX006A-B;
- AN-H0255XU/AN-C0324X products having the same design as the physical samples produced with Bates numbers ASTER PX007A-B.”
“Aster Graphics has ascended to a leadership position in the imaging supply industry by producing products that are embedded with our own design innovations, many of which are protected by Aster’s valid and enforceable U.S Patent and Trademark office registered patents,” Aster added. “Aster products have never been subject to a seizure order and our product supply has never been interrupted.”
