Kodak, Collins Inkjet Settle Dispute Over Inks

Eastman Kodak and Collins Inkjet have settled an ongoing court case brought by Collins against Kodak, concerning the use of Collins inks on Kodak Versamark printheads.

While terms of the settlement remain confidential, Collins’ ink will now be approved for use in Kodak Versamark systems, such as the D-series and 6240 range of imprinting solutions. Kodak will offer full refurbishment services for Versamark printheads without regard to whether Kodak or Collins inks are being used. Customers with or without current contracts are free to choose either Kodak or Collins inks, without impact to the quality, price or speed of printhead refurbishment services that Kodak offers.

In order to facilitate speedier set up of custom color inks and to aid switchover from ink to ink, Kodak will expand the ink index files for its DH90 and DH91 printheads to support a range of Collins inks.

Commenting on the settlement, Philip Cullimore, president of Kodak’s Enterprise Inkjet Division said, “I am delighted with the settlement we have reached with Collins. We have a long-standing relationship with Lawrence (Gamblin, CEO of Collins Inkjet) and his company, based on our ability to solve customer problems with innovative inkjet solutions—solving our disagreements that have occurred over the past couple of years has been a key objective for me, in order to enable us to get back to jointly innovating new variable data solutions for our customers around the world.”

Lawrence Gamblin, CEO of Collins Inkjet stated, “Since 1990, Collins Inkjet has manufactured a wide-range of standard and custom inkjet inks for Kodak Versamark equipment. This settlement represents great news for our customers, in removing confusion over the use of our inks in Kodak Versamark printheads and Kodak’s policy of refurbishment. In working with Kodak as a supplier of approved inks, Collins brings thousands of individual formulations each targeted towards customers’ applications and desired performance qualities, expanding the type of work that can be created on Kodak’s systems. I am delighted that Philip (Cullimore) and I have managed to get our business relationship back to the customer-focused level that we had previously enjoyed.”