This past week, thousands of HP Inc. printer owners were notified by their printers that their ink cartridges were "damaged" and needed to be replaced. The reason, according to a statement from HP, was a firmware update intended to "protect HP's innovations and intellectual property." But some users report that even HP's own cartridges failed in their printers—and that they weren't able to get the printer to respond in order to remove the offending ink.

"I turn it on, it complains about a damaged cartridge, so I open the front door to replace." one HP OfficeJet user complained. "When I open the door, the carriage does NOT move, and the error message now says to close the door to print. I close the door, and the original damaged cartridge error message returns."

The change in firmware was triggered early last week, with a wave of complaints hitting companies selling "private label" ink and refilled HP cartridges on September 13. As Myce reported, Dutch ink cartridge retailer 123inkt.nl investigated the problem with cartridges sold by the company and was told by the manufacturer of the chip used on its ink cartridges that the problems were worldwide—and the manufacturer was already producing new chips to get around the firmware.

HP's move to sabotage third-party cartridges and recycled cartridges with replaced chips is about more than protecting "innovation"—printer ink is one of the company's biggest profit centers. In the past, HP has gone as far as to pay retailers not to carry third-party ink cartridges. But the printer business is shrinking as fewer people actually print hard copies; HP's printer shipments for the first half of this year are down more than 16 percent from the same period last year. The recent $1.05 billion acquisition offer for Samsung's printer business is, if anything, an effort to eliminate a rival and shore up HP's ink cash cow.