Lexmark reports success against counterfeiters in Europe

Lexmark, the printing solutions provider, has announced that Lexmark investigators and police raided a warehouse in Turkey as part of the company's continuing efforts to remove counterfeit printer supplies from the marketplace. This raid was the culmination of an extensive investigation of a suspect that had previously been charged with trademark counterfeiting in the Turkish court system. The warehouse contained counterfeit supplies for several printer brands, and police officers seized more than 1,000 counterfeit Lexmark supply items from the location.

 
In February, Italian Guardia di Finanza officers conducted a raid on a warehouse near Milan thatresulted in the seizure of almost 40,000 counterfeit Lexmark supply items. This facility was being used as a repackaging plant for building complete counterfeit cartridges of multiple brands. The suspect in this case has been arrested.
 
These recent events inItaly and Turkey underscore the availability of counterfeit printer supplies in the market, and highlight Lexmark's efforts to combat the spread of counterfeit printer supplies.
 
Another important issue facing the market today is the increase of clone toner cartridges that havebeen found to violate Lexmark patents in a number of countries. Lexmark hasrecently taken legal action against manufacturers, distributors and resellers of these cartridges that violate Lexmark intellectual property, with successes in the United States and Germany. In order to solicit additional information from the channel and supplies markets, Lexmark has implemented an email address, clone@lexmark.com, that can be used to provideinformation on sellers, distributors and importers of these potentially patent-infringing clone toner cartridges.
 
Protecting the Lexmark brand against counterfeit and grey market activity is very important. Lexmark maintains a zero tolerance policy and is taking action worldwide, checking domestic and global markets for manufacturers and sellers of trademark-infringing counterfeit cartridges and patent-infringing clone/compatible cartridges.