These issues fit into a broader fight over what some experts call the "right to tinker." The thinking goes: If you buy something, you should be free to do whatever you want with it — modify it, sell it, even destroy it. But some companies, even car manufacturers, have sought to put limits on that freedom. They make arguments such as Lexmark's, asserting that handling a product in a way that potentially undermines the company's business leads to a violation of patent or copyright protections. In this view, customers may think they own the physical property outright, but they are still constrained by an invisible cage made of corporate intellectual property.