HP Sues Xerox for Breach of Contract and Patent Infringement
HP Terminates Xerox's License for HP TrueRes Technology. HP’s complaint against Xerox, filed in U.S. District Court in Boise, Idaho, follows the termination of Xerox's license to use HP TrueRes technology in Xerox's color laser printers, including the C55 and NC60. HP says the termination resulted after nine months of inquiries and discussions over Xerox's contractual breaches for the past several years, including nonpayment of royalties and refusal to comply with contractual reporting requirements.
"We've tried hard for nine months to work with Xerox to fix this," said Carolyn Ticknor, president and CEO, HP LaserJet Imaging Systems. "Unfortunately for both of us, HP reached the point where we felt we had to take action."
In addition to this case, there are four other patent-infringement cases pending between HP and Xerox. The first is a complaint brought by Xerox against HP relating to inkjet technology. The second case involves Xerox's infringement of HP patents relating to a touch-screen user interface. The third case is an infringement claim relating to HP Resolution Enhancement technology. The fourth case involves Xerox's infringement of HP inkjet technology patents."A simple win-win intellectual-property relationship has been broken by Xerox's inconsistent and unpredictable treatment of HP TrueRes intellectual property," said Ticknor. "It seems a shame Xerox can't make even this simple intellectual-property relationship work."