Lexmark Wins Closely-Watched Patent Case on Refurbished Products

By Susan Decker, Bloomberg News

Patent owners have the right to prevent their goods, first sold overseas, from being refurbished and resold in the U.S., an appeals court ruled Friday.

Ruling in a dispute brought by Lexmark International Inc. over refurbished printer cartridges, the court said patent law enables limits to be placed on the resale of products that are first sold overseas. Those sales don’t exhaust U.S. patent rights, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled in a 10-2 decision.

The closely-watched inkjet printer case hinged on the question of whether a patent owner ...