Amazon and Epson sue firms accused of selling third-party printer ink

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Amazon and Epson have jointly initiated legal action against companies in Turkey and the UK for allegedly selling counterfeit printing ink.

The lawsuit, which aims to protect the trademarks of Seiko Epson Corporation and Epson America, targets traders accused of infringing on the Japanese company’s trademarks. Amazon.com joined the lawsuit to safeguard its customers as well as its own reputation.

According to the lawsuit, as many as 24 seller accounts had been distributing counterfeit Epson products between August 2021 and January 2024.

Epson sues counterfeit ink sellers

Giving context about the joint efforts, Jilana Miller, assistant general counsel for Epson America, said:

“From obtaining General Exclusion Orders in the ITC, to raids and seizures of counterfeit products and regular enforcement through online marketplaces, Epson employs a broad range of efforts to address patent and trademark infringement in the market.”

Kebharu Smith, director of Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU), added: “Amazon has a zero-tolerance policy for counterfeit products and collaborated with the Epson team on this joint lawsuit to have a direct impact on these bad actors and permanently prevent them from selling counterfeits.”

The complaint asserts that the defendants collaborated in advertising, marketing, distributing and selling inauthentic Epson products, associating them through common business addresses and financial accounts.

The lawsuit seeks to prevent the counterfeit sellers from continuing doing so, as well as the destruction of offending products.

Note that the lawsuit targets sellers impersonating Epson, and not third-party ink sellers. This case is an entirely different one to the pressures that HP has faced in recent years, having blocked many third-party cartridges in its printers via a sneaky firmware update and forcing customers to use authentic HP ink or subscribe to its monthly ink plans – something that CFO Marie Myers previously indirectly admitted had helped the company to secure more revenue.