Battle Expected Over OEM Killer Chips

At Conference@2013, renowned U.S. patent attorney Ed O’Connor updated attendees on some of the key cases concerning the aftermarket industry today. One of these relates to killer chips.

According to Mr. O’Connor, killer chips—which will stop the handshake process between a non-OEM cartridge and its printer when the toner runs out—will make cartridges inactive no matter what users try to do to replace a spent cartridge with one that has been refilled with toner. He said, “Killer chips are a blatant attempt to prevent the refurbishing of spent cartridges by anyone other than OEMs.” Industry observers fear these chips will have a serious impact on the aftermarket.

O’Connor expects a major battle to be fought in the recharger industry over the use of killer chips. He added, “Designing around these chips and their patents is a matter of ongoing research, development and patent analysis. This includes the development of patented technology by those engaging in the design of a workaround solution for defeating the OEM killer chips”.