Some other company holds the patent for holding a cd on a tray to be
used with a inkjet printer - where the printer thinks it is just thick
paper...
This company only paid for the patent in the USA. Canon / Epson refuse
to pay royalties to this company - hence to avoid the legal minefield
they do not produce or include this tray in their models shipped to
the USA.
I do not know what the patent situation is outside the USA - because
both epson and canon sell the cd printing capability to every other
country in europe / asia / australia.
There is nothing sinister in this - somebody else thought of it
first... got the patent and refuse to negotiate with the big players,
or they refuse to pay.
Supply and demand.
I am unsure which company holds the patent - but I do know of Primera
selling similar printers in the USA and Verity Systems and EZ Media,
most at over US$1000. So you can imagine a US$200 printer on the
market doing the same thing eh? Those listed aboce are really well
known brand names eh!
What would be interesting to know in the USA if you lived there... Can
you buy the tray from overseas as a spare part - and would it work in
the crippled USA model (although by crippled - I mean it was just not
included)
Interesting eh? One of the few times, consumers, nerds, etc. would be
importing something into the USA to get the best or latest item, as
opposed to everyone else shipping drives / video cards etc from the
USA to Aus !!
