Memjet buys the IP it needs to spread

With luck, this will fix availability

Memjet has purchased all the IP behind their printers, likely allowing them to spread the tech out to new markets. Hopefully this will lead to much greater availability of models, something that strangely hasn’t happened yet.

Memjet makes a rather revolutionary printing system, it is basically an inkjet with a full page width print head. It prints pages in full color about as fast as they can be physically fed through the printer with no slowdown. We saw it at CES last year, and it works really well. OK, it would work really well, but there don’t appear to be Linux drivers, so the tech is currently a boat anchor, but that is an addressable problem. If they get this fixed, there is only the availability issue…..

The short story here is that Memjet printers are basically nowhere to be found, quite the odd situation considering how good the tech looks. It appears that there were some IP/licensing/lawyerly arcana preventing, well, something, and that is why they weren’t widely available. Memjet has now purchased the entire IP portfolio behind their products, said to be 4000 issued and pending patents from Silverbrook Research Pty.

With luck, this will banish the IP lawyers and their flying monkeys, leading to a much wider array of Memjet products on the market. They are sorely needed. If the company ever comes out with Linux drivers and a North American based model at a reasonable price, I will be the first in line for it. Here’s to hoping both happen.S|A

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Charlie Demerjian

Roving engine of chaos and snide remarks at SemiAccurate
Charlie Demerjian is the founder of Stone Arch Networking Services and SemiAccurate.com. SemiAccurate.com is a technology news site; addressing hardware design, software selection, customization, securing and maintenance, with over one million views per month. He is a technologist and analyst specializing in semiconductors, system and network architecture. As head writer of SemiAccurate.com, he regularly advises writers, analysts, and industry executives on technical matters and long lead industry trends. Charlie is also available through Guidepoint and Mosaic. FullyAccurate