HP (NYSE:HPQ) today announced that Germany-based Pelikan Hardcopy Deutschland GmbH was found to be in violation of the German law on unfair competition by the Cologne Regional Court, Germany.
In a judgment issued in July and finalized earlier this month, the court ordered Pelikan to cease labeling certain newly manufactured inkjet print cartridges as “remanufactured.”
HP initiated this unfair competition action against Pelikan last summer after Pelikan refused HP’s request to voluntarily give an undertaking to cease its misleading advertising. HP had discovered that Pelikan marketed and sold new print cartridges in packaging that claimed the new cartridges were remanufactured products. In the recent judgment, the court agreed with HP and took the view that Pelikan’s labeling was misleading to customers.
The newly manufactured Pelikan print cartridges were sold under the Pelikan brand and designated as H06 and H08 color cartridges. These same Pelikan products were the subject of a patent infringement proceeding brought by HP against Pelikan in Germany last year. In August 2007, the Düsseldorf Regional Court in Germany ordered Pelikan to stop importing and distributing these cartridges, following Pelikan’s admission of patent infringement.
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