Canon Continues its War Against Infringing Online Sales

Canon Continues its War Against Infringing Online Sales

In three different announcements on October 8, 2020, Canon announced it had requested Amazon to remove what it considers to be printer cartridges that infringe its patents and intellectual property rights.

Three countries were involved being Canada, Australia and Mexico. Canon is by far the most diligent OEM when it comes to ridding the online marketplace of infringing products. Particularly with Amazon.

Canon goes to great length to explain, on each occasion that it “respects the intellectual property of others and expects others to similarly respect Canon’s intellectual property rights. Canon remains committed to pursuing legal enforcement against those who do not respect Canon’s intellectual property.”

In each case, Amazon claims to remove the products which are the subject of Canon’s complaint. At the same time, filing a Report Infringement Form with Amazon is a service offered by Amazon and does not comprise any official finding of validity or infringement of a patent. The decision to take down a product is in the discretion of Amazon and is based on information provided by Canon. Amazon informed the vendor about the takedown and the vendor may object to it.

The three requests made by Canon on October 8:

1. Canada: “Canon Inc. today announced the filing of an infringement report with Amazon.ca seeking the removal of an Amazon.ca listing for certain toner cartridges sold by BTRTG.”
   • Canon’s infringement report alleged that certain model CE320A, CE321A, CE322A, CE323A, CF210A, CF211A, CF212A and CF213A toner cartridges sold by BTRTG via Amazon.ca infringed Canon’s Canadian Patent no. 2,635,791. Canon requested the removal of the corresponding listings for these products, having Amazon Standard Identification Numbers B07ZX98NMP, B07ZX97922, B07ZX9MYPK, B07ZX9ZGYZ, B07ZX9VPY2, B07ZX9VPXX, B07ZX9VPXW, B07ZX8YNHP, B07ZX9HL3Q, B07ZX93KL4, B07ZX94DNY, B07ZX8Y3XM, B07ZX91WLB, B07ZX9MCP8, B07ZX9S5P4, B07ZX9YKX4, B07ZX9K67X and B07ZX928RN.
   • At the time of this announcement, the above-identified listings were no longer available on Amazon.ca. Filing an infringement report with Amazon.ca is a service offered by Amazon and does not constitute an official finding of infringement. The decision to take down a product is in the discretion of Amazon and is based on information provided by Canon.
2. Australia: “Canon Inc. today announced that it filed a Report Infringement Form with Amazon.com.au for certain toner cartridges offered by junbsao.
   • Canon’s infringement report alleged junbsao used ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers) B07VBLH2ZK, B07X6SJKTW, B07X3ZMG1G, B07WY4XZDN, B07XCFB4MS, B07X5TSFQR, B07WT3624B, B07XCHY2LH, B07X2W5L7N, B07WP2DGC2, B07X9JHJYG, B07X51MDW6, B07WY4BXJX, B07VJ3ZXW9, B07VDY5DTP, B07WP2WFJ3, B07VCPXC61, B07VBLPT9C, B07VG1WK7M, B07VCY3XDW, B07WP1QZBW, B07VH5B2LW, B07X4CSCCN, B07X2W4THZ, B07VJ6BNB1, B07X53MPZS, B07X8GSQ8Z, B07WP2SB6Y, B07X145CTW, B07VBLYSX2, B07VCPZ68W, B07X3ZK1CT and B07WW4D5YZ.
   • the report is based on the alleged infringement of claim 28 of Canon’s Australian Patent Number AU2007205464 regarding the cartridge models CC530A, CC531A, CC532A, CC533A, CE320A, CE321A, CE322A, CE323A, CF210A, CF211A, CF212A and CF213A.
   • After receipt of the Report Infringement Form, Amazon took down the respective products. These products are compatible with the OEM HP cartridge models and provide a non-OEM housing and a non-OEM force receiving device according to claim 28 of AU2007205464.
3. Mexico: “Canon Inc. today announced the filing of an infringement report with Amazon.mx seeking the removal of Amazon.mx listings for certain toner cartridges sold by Roilan Iglesias Diaz for use in HP laser beam printers.”
   • Canon’s infringement report alleged that claim 160 of Mexican Patent Number 308881 was infringed by certain model CE255A toner cartridges offered by Roilan Iglesias Diaz under the Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) B07BR6S6GR.
   • After receiving Canon’s Report Infringement Form, Amazon removed the respective products, and at the time of this announcement, the above-identified listings of Roilan Iglesias Diaz were no longer available on Amazon.mx.