Brother on Aftermarket Chips for Inkjet Printers

Brother released a technical white paper in which it advises both remanufacturers and chip manufacturers how to "properly program the data field" on aftermarket chips.

The white paper is titled Technical white paper: Aftermarket chips for Brother inkjet printers, and follows in the footsteps of a similar production from HP in 2013, in that it aims to help remanufacturers avoid conflicts with aftermarket chips. The OEM states that it has recently launched inkjet printers that "contain a new cartridge authentication function", which provides customers with a message "stating whether the ink cartridge installed is a Brother-branded ink cartridge" manufactured by the OEM, or a "non-Brother ink cartridge manufactured by others".

These include the MFC-J680DW, J880DW and J885DW, which utilize the LC201 and LC203 cartridges. The message shown on the printer's display would either say "Genuine Brother supply" or "Non-Brother supply", but the authentication message "will not be accurate unless the chip manufacturer has properly programmed the data field on the chip". The OEM states that "if you are a supplier of ink cartridges, please instruct your chip manufacturer to follow the instructions in order to allow accurate display of the cartridge authentication message and avoid causing confusion" for users.

Chip manufacturers are asked to "please follow and comply with the instructions", and not to "attempt to use any programs to circumvent this cartridge function". The authentication software has been developed to "properly inform" users that they are using either a Brother or non-Brother cartridge, but some cartridges had "misidentified themselves" as genuine, and the OEM believes the new software will "provide better transparency to customers to make an informed choice", which will "be beneficial to everyone concerned in the ink cartridge market".

The programming and identification recommended "will not result in any loss to features or quality in printing", Brother adds, as third-party suppliers can "properly identify" their products to "demonstrate to your customers that your products are respectful of registered trademarks". Its instructions discuss programming the data field on chips "correctly" for the new machines, with manufacturers told to change string ASCII characters to "some other value" from Brother.

A third-party manufacturer's "own brand identifiers" are recommended instead, and the next step is to change "Field X" after the ASCII characters to "0x01', as only "0x00" should be used for genuine Brother cartridges. The OEM warns that "putting any value other than Brother as ASCII characters", and putting "0x01" in the field, will "only change the display message that the customer sees". Other than the printers already listed, Brother states that inkjet machines with 2.7-inch or larger displays launched this summer "are expected to have this authentication messaging function".

Concluding that the white paper "may be updated in the future", the OEM states that with more machines being released that will contain the software, remanufacturers and chip manufacturers are asked to "properly and consistently program the existing chips of your cartridges by following the instructions".

Source: The Recyceler