Non-genuine toner

Kyocera Mita Europe has received evidence that counterfeit Kyocera Mita toners have been circulated, distributed and sold within the Kyocera Mita Europe sales territory, which includes the UK and Republic of Ireland. It is important to be alert to this issue because if a customer faces technical problems arising from the use of counterfeit toner, this is covered by neither the Kyocera Mita warranty nor maintenance agreement.

A counterfeit toner is one that bears the name of a genuine toner (in our case a toner that bears the name of Kyocera or Kyocera Mita) but which is not made by Kyocera Mita. It is therefore being sold as a genuine toner but is in fact an illegal product because it violates Kyocera Mita Intellectual Property Rights. There are extremely serious criminal law, civil law, and administrative law consequences for individuals and/or businesses selling, distributing, or dealing in counterfeit products.

It can be difficult to identify counterfeit toner because the packaging often very closely resembles the genuine Kyocera Mita product. Therefore customers are often unable to distinguish between genuine toner and counterfeit toner. To deal with this problem, Kyocera Mita has incorporated special technology features (which have been in production since October 2007) to make it easier to identify counterfeit toner. One example is the Kyocera Mita trustgram on the toner cassette.

There are several indicators of counterfeit toner which we wish to draw to your attention:

• Toners sold at a low price is an indication that they may be counterfeit.

• Colours and materials used in the packaging may be different from Kyocera Mita genuine toner packaging.

• Materials used in the counterfeit toners are most likely of poorer quality than Genuine Toner.

• The method by which counterfeit toners are sold can differ from the way of normal business and consumer transactions.