In February, 2006, Epson filed a complaint against 24 US, Korean, German, and Chinese companies that were importing and selling ink cartridges violating Epson’s patents.

In March, 2007, The U.S. International Trade Commission issued the Initial Determination that found all 11 patents belonging to Seiko Epson Corporation to be valid and all ink cartridges at issue to violate one or more of the patents.

The other day, the ITC issued what they call a Final Determination to support, with slight moderations that don’t change the outcome, the Initial Determination. The ITC also prohibited import of all guilty cartridges into the US, as well as sale and distribution of those cartridges in the U.S. by certain domestic companies.

The Final Determination is now to be review by the President within 60 days, to decide if there are any reasons to disapprove the Final Determination. During the review period, importers may continue to import infringing cartridges into the US only if they post a bond of $13.60 per cartridge.

If the President does not disapprove the Final Determination, then all importers must cease importing infringing products entirely. I wonder what this “does not disapprove” is. Does it mean that EXPRESSED agreement of the President is NOT required or something, and if the Determination simply lies on the President table (or wherever such documents are kept) for 60 days, it will automatically come into effect?

Either way, it doesn’t look good for both ink cartridge importers and ink cartridge buyers – no profit for the ones, no cheap inks for the others.

Konica Minolta Business Solutions introduces an addition to its next-generation bizhub range of multifunctional – the bizhub C203, C253 and C353.

Konica Minolta bizhub C203, C253 and C353 have network printer, copier and network scanner functionality as standard with a Super G3 fax module option. The only difference between the new models is the speed of printing – 20 ppm for bizhub C203, 25 ppm for bizhub C253 and 35 ppm for bizhub C353. Each printer perform equally fast in both color and black-and-white.

The design of the multifunction printers features a LCD color 8.5-inch display, with a touch screen that can be both rotated and tilted to suit a desired position.

The new bizhubs have a range of features that limit access of unauthorised users to functions such as color, scanning and single sided printing. The features include user authentication by user name and PIN, and the option of fast biometric authentication via finger print, or a contactless user card.

The three new Konica Minolta bizhubs support auto duplex for printing A4-sized pages on both sides.

The new multifunctions feature slit scan technology that can scan originals as fast as up to 70 color or mono sheets per minute at 300 dpi resolution. Konica Minolta’s patented Simitri HD Polymerised Toner is used in these machines for more even distribution, significantly better fine line definition, and better solid fills and overall quality output.

The bizhub C203, C253 and C353 are available with a range of high productivity finishing options including sorting, stapling and saddle stitching.

Previously, I reported a study by Australian scientists that proved laser printers may be high-volume ultra-fine particles (UFP) emitters, and that these particles may be hazardous to health (heart problems and lung disease.)

Canadian Broadcasting Company sponsored its own study on that issue.

The research was conducted in three different locations in Winnipeg by placing particle monitors above printers in the offices. Basically, the results of this new study support those of the Australian study: laser printers do emit ultra-fine particle in large volumes.

In the three offices, 20 to 42 per cent of all printers tested were found guilty of polluting the air. 27 per cent of the printers in that study were considered high emitters, or printers that emit more than 10 times the UFP than was found in the ambient air. The amount of UFP concentrations returned to normal levels within one to two minutes after reaching its maximum.

Breathe deeply, no reason to panic yet. 27 per cent is not “most,” it’s just “some” printers. Besides, simple precautious measures of ventilating your room and sitting away from working printer, will make you heart and lung serve you longer.

Once upon a time, printers were printing devices no different from a typewriter in terms of security. As years lapsed, time printers have become more sophisticated, network-enabled devices with hard drives and even operating systems. Pretty much like personal computer. And people keep on taking printers for what they actually are – devices that produce images and texts.

However, modern printers, especially if incorporated into organization’s computer network, can compromise the network security. Printers became as dangerous as computers – they, too, are vulnerable to hackers attacks from inside and outside, and are good place for viruses and other malware to reside. This is what many security expert say and few printer users realize.

In an afford to addressed this issue, Hewlett Packard announced Secure Print Advantage – a new printing security system. According to the company, Secure Print Advantage is the industry’s first hardware-based security solution to minimize business risk.

“HP Secure Print Advantage automates traditionally manual processes and delivers an industry first: consistent, comprehensive and enforceable security policy for the print infrastructure,” said Chris Whitener, chief strategist, Secure Advantage, HP. “This solution provides the necessary automation and simplification of security tasks, like key management, to reduce the costs and burdens generally associated with them.”

Secure Print Advantage a actually a set of devices that encrypt and decrypt data transferred between the workstation and the printer using government-grade FIPS 140-2 Level 4 encryption, maximum level of security encryption. The system consists of modules installed in the user’s desktop or laptop, Secure Printing Modules and the Secure Document Server.

Module of the user’s workstation encrypts the outgoing data and sends it to the Secure Document Server. The server then scans the document for malware, re-encrypts it and either sends it to a Secure Printing Module or to another user. The Secure Printing Module, in turn, decrypts the information and transfers it to the printer. The printing module can also be equipped with a keypad or card-reader to ensure that only an authorized user prints the document.

The system will be available on the market in February, 2008. HP didn’t announce the price yet, but the system is said to be expensive, thus affordable only to those companies where high level of security is vital.