On September 15 and 16, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon heard oral arguments and issued summary judgments on various issues in Epson’s long-running patent-infringement lawsuit against Ninestar. This is a high-stakes case for both parties. Epson has noted in earlier filings, “The Ninestar Entities face hundreds of millions of dollars in liability [in the district court proceedings].”

Recently, we had the opportunity to hear more from Veneeta Eason, Kodak’s director of worldwide future product marketing for consumer inkjet systems, about the new HERO inkjet line and how it fits into Kodak’s business strategy. The new line was announced in September and includes SOHO and business-class inkjet machines.

Earlier this month, as part of its Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) fall product launch, HP quietly updated its Photosmart and ENVY inkjet all-in-ones lines. The new ENVY 110 e-All-in-One replaces the ENVY 100 that HP introduced last fall. The new Photosmart 5510, 6510, and 7510 e-All-in-Ones replace the Photosmart e-All-in-One, the Photosmart Plus e-All-in-One, and Photosmart Premium e-All-in-One, also introduced just one year ago. The new machines are midlife kickers that offer some improvements over their predecessors but deliver nothing new in terms of print engines or consumables.

On October 5, Global Industry Analysts (GIA) announced a new report on worldwide market for inkjet print heads. The 355-page report, Inkjet Heads: A Global Strategic Business Report, is available now for $4,500. It provides sales estimates and projections for the inkjet head market from 2009 to 2017 worldwide and for the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America. Inkjet print-head manufacturers profiled in the report include Canon, Eastman Kodak, FUJIFILM Dimatix, HP, Lexmark, Olivetti, Ricoh Printing Systems, Seiko Epson, STMicroelectronics, and Xaar. Overall, 26 companies are profiled.

At the end of August, Epson America introduced a new line up of groundbreaking inkjet devices with features that ought to allow them to go toe-to-toe with office lasers. The new line includes the single-function WorkForce Pro WP-4020 printer, and the WorkForce Pro WP-4530 and WP-4540, which are four-function units with print, copy, scan, and fax capabilities. All three new machines are additions to Epson’s inkjet lineup. An Epson spokesperson told us the new machines are “designed for small offices, departmental workgroups, and vertical markets such as real estate.”

On September 7, Kodak announced a new lineup of inkjet all-in-one devices. The products feature a new naming scheme and new mobile printing technologies as well as a new look: mostly black with red accents. The new HERO 3.1, HERO 5.1, HERO 7.1, and HERO 9.1 will replace the ESP 3250, ESP 5250, ESP 7250, and ESP 9250, respectively. The Office HERO 6.1 will succeed the ESP Office 6150. This will leave only the ESP C310 and ESP Office 2170 in the ESP line.

Having been granted a general exclusion order as a result of the U.S. International Trade Commission investigation 337-TA-565 back in 2007, Epson was able to curtail the importation of many third-party ink tanks into the United States that infringed its patents. Epson also sued various non-OEM cartridge makers that violated its intellectual property in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, Portland Division, looking for damages. One of the firms Epson went after for patent-infringement was Green Project, but now the two parties have settled the matter.

On August 16, Brother announced four new inkjet all-in-ones for small-office/home-office (SOHO) environments: the MFC-J280W, MFC-J430W, MFC-J625DW, and MFC-J825DW. The new lineup includes the MFC-J280W, Brother’s first sub-$149 all-in-ones to include both easy-to-setup wireless capabilities and built-in automatic duplexing. The MFC-J280W will replace the MFC-265W and features print speeds of up to 33 ppm in black and 26 ppm in color. It is a print/copy/scan/fax device with a 100-sheet paper tray and 1.9-inch color LCD and it supports wireless networking using the latest 802.11b/g/n standard.

On August 23, Canon U.S.A. replaced the PIXMA MG8120 Photo All-in-One (AIO) Inkjet Printer with the MG8220 and the PIXMA MG6120 with the MG6220. The two new inkjet units are Canon’s latest wireless photo devices with print, copy, and scan functionality. The machines offer enhanced mobile printing from devices like smart phones and tablets and support printing from the cloud via Canon’s PIXMA Cloud Link, which debuted earlier this year in machines such as the PIXMA MG5320.