Good luck to Club Coffee on this quest, as similar suits against printer manufacturers (including those who have put proprietary tech in their print cartridges to prevent third party cartridges from working) have been pretty fruitless. It does represent, though, a great reason to abstain from buying a Keurig coffee maker while they maintain such policies.
Keurig coffee sued for $600M by Ontario-based Club Coffee
An Ontario coffee roaster and grinder is suing U.S. giant Keurig for anti-competitive behaviour, claiming it is keeping the price of single-serve coffee pods artificially high for consumers.
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Definitely not buying a 2.0 machine with the digital rights protection. I buy off brand / non – "Keurig brewed" K cups all the time and they're great, plus they have less non-recyclable packaging in many cases.
When my Keurig dies it might be back to the good old french press!
The first part of the complaint may not merit a case – patent technology, after all, is meant to spur innovation, and Keurig's patents aren't being arbitrarily extended like Disney's trademarks.
The second part of the complaint, however, seems on its surface to merit some action:
"Secondly, Keurig has used the threat of this lockout technology to coerce retailers into exclusive arrangements to sell only Keurig-controlled products."
I wonder if anyone is entering the coffee MAKER market using designs based upon Keurig's expired patent.
+John E. Bredehoft If the patents have expired, I'd expect someone to. I'd also expect Keurig to fight tooth and nail in any way they can against it. But the potential market seems immense.
Now, whether they will pull the same DRM malarkey is another question (as the printer analogy suggests).
DRM?
On a keurig?
…seriously?
+Gretchen Sher As opposed to an HP inkjet printer? Sure.
Think about it. I string some words together, using the same 26 letters of the alphabet that everyone else has, and governments decide that my work is protected.
Or I sing some notes at various pitches and press keys on a synth, and governments decide that my work is protected.
Why not printer cartridges? Or coffee modules? Or GMO grain?