In a mature industry, there are usually dozens of established players, each with its turf to protect and considerations to meet. However, even the largest players cannot prevent the changes sweeping through legacy business practices caused by the conversion from an analog to a digital environment. For the first time in the history of commerce, the balance of power is switching from the supplier toward the buyer as the transition to a "pull" economy takes place.
We have focused on publishing material to build a strong foundation for our argument that the website plays a critical role as the platform for content designed to cater to the interests of researching buyers. In the context of the 70%+ of buyers' that now independently research for information before considering talking directly to a salesperson, the resellers website and its content strategy have become vital components in the fight for survival.
On Thursday, February 28, 2019, the latest development in the ongoing legal battle between Canon and certain aftermarket manufacturers and distributors of alternative toner cartridges involved in the '1106 ITC investigation occurred. ALJ Dee Lord issued a Markman order and order addressing motions for Summary Determination and pre-Hearing Briefs.
It's logical - if a business has a poor-quality website that lacks the features necessary to turn a visit into a value-add experience, there's not much point in developing traffic to that site. It's also logical that if an investment has been made in a world-class website then unless there's a parallel strategy to develop traffic, the investment will be wasted.
Access to the Internet started to become widely available in the mid-1990s. Now, almost 25 years later, the scope of what can be accomplished online bears little resemblance to those early days as the underlying technology continues to advance rapidly.
We have built a case that there is little opportunity for independent resellers to grow in a shrinking market without improving their value proposition. However, growing in a shrinking market means increasing market share. This objective is difficult without a compelling value proposition that successfully differentiates a business from its competitors.
Our interest is the office products industry, emphasizing office supplies such as ink and toner cartridges which, because of the high profits earned on the sale of replacement cartridges, underpin the entire $150-200 billion office products and equipment industry.
The third dongle-gear patent dispute, initiated by Canon back on February 28, 2018, in the form of the International Trade Commission, named 49 respondents and asserted infringement of 9 patents (containing 193 claims, of which 28 were independent). The dispute has now effectively been whittled down to 3 respondents (Aster Graphics, Print-Rite, and Ninestar), 1, 7 patents (Canon has withdrawn 2), and 21 claims, of which ten are independent and 11 dependent.2
A value proposition consists of a combination of price, quality, and service, with consumers gravitating toward what they perceive as the best proposition. The speed at which the gravitation takes place depends on increases in the level of awareness combined with how compelling the value proposition is considered to be.
Ever since the transformation from impact printing (typewriters, dot-matrix, etc.) to non-impact (ink and laser) took place during the 1980s and 1990s, the dominant technologies of ink and laser have been divided as such. Laser-based technology has always been perceived as more suitable for business environments, and ink is ideal for home and small office environments.
