Printing deal secures 300 research jobs

A global legal battle between printing technology company Memjet and Australian firm Silverbrook Research has finally been settled, with Silverbrook's 300 researchers and engineers to be settled into new positions.

Memjet's printing technology sees pages printed in a single pass through, with ink shot onto the page by 70,000 nozzles. The technology allows for the printer to produce one colour page every second.

It was developed in Australia, by scientists and researchers working at a Silverbrook Research facility in North Ryde, Sydney, and was shown off at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in 2009.

Earlier this year, however, Memjet's biggest backer, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, filed a suit against Silverbrook Research founder Kia Silverbrook, his partner Janette Faye Lee and Silverbrook Research itself.

The suit saw Silverbrook's North Ryde facility temporarily shut down and workers put on leave, pending the settlement of the court case. Kia Silverbrook told Fairfax, at the time, that the decision to send workers home was difficult and costly for the company.

"We are devastated that Australia's best and brightest scientists and engineers have been made to take annual leave from our Australian facilities. We have had to pay the staff since February from our own pockets, while our US-based customer has over $22 million in outstanding invoices owing to Silverbrook Research," Silverbrook said in a statement last month.

The settlement, reached last week, will see Memjet take ownership of the intellectual property associated with the technology, including over 4000 patents issued around the world. Memjet will also take control of future developments in the technology, which will see around 300 researchers and scientists offered positions with Memjet.

Kia Silverbrook will continue to act as a special advisor to Memjet's board of directors.

The settlement sees legal action withdrawn from all territories around the world.

Len Lauer, president and CEO of Memjet, said that he is pleased that the case has been resolved.

"With all litigation now resolved between the parties, Memjet is positioned to move forward and focus on bringing its disruptive technology to commercial, industrial and office printing markets worldwide," he said.

Disclosure: ZDNet Australia's news editor Suzanne Tindal's husband is employed by a company associated with Silverbrook Research.