Hewlett-Packard’s Partial Patent to Expire Next Year

November 2, 2003

Hewlett-Packard’s Partial Patent to Expire Next YearHewlett Packard’s ink jet printer patents are due to expire in 2004. Thus, HP’s future potential profit gained from these specific printers is likely to be shared by its competitors.

Since HP obtained these patents, it has made great progress in its area of technology development. However, some of HP’s patents have expired or are beginning to gradually expire. With these expirations comes a great business opportunity for HP’s competitors. However, HP is still acting to maintain its high competency in the market. According to the statistics, HP currently possesses 7000 patents of ink jet printers, of which 3000 are related to consumable parts of printers. Currently HP is investing 1 billion US dollars in its field of research development of jet ink printers.

HP has been leveraging its intellectual property right to keep its potential competitors off the market, maintaining its leading position in the market as well. In the third quarter of this year, HP’s imaging and printing unit made a net profit of 739 million U.S dollars. In the second quarter of this year, HP accounted for 44% out of the whole market share.

Although the market for consumable parts of printers is an extremely attractive one, HP’s patents manage to almost cover every field of printing technology. Therefore, other potential competitors must overcome the extra barrier in order to enter the market.