Instead of selling it, why not just lease it? They would then retain ownership and could very well claim theft if another company attempted to refill it and sell it.
Shouldn't they be able to structure their lease agreement as a 1 time payment and 100 year term or something?
If I lease a car, someone else can't repaint it and sell it legally.
Or they could set up their own cartridge recycling plant, retain ownership of the cartridges themselves, and charge a reasonable fee to refill the cartridges.
If a customer chooses not to have a cartridge refilled but would rather buy a new one, the customer just returns the cartridge to a recycling point.
Sort of like beer bottles in the UK half a century ago. The bottles and crate remained the property of the brewery and you returned them to claim your deposit back.
Shouldn't they be able to structure their lease agreement as a 1 time payment and 100 year term or something?
If I lease a car, someone else can't repaint it and sell it legally.