A US leading law firm has filed a lawsuit against HP for intentionally paralyzing printers that use non-HP cartridges. 

Heninger Garrison Davis LLC (HGD) has alleged that HP violated consumer protection laws and US antitrust laws by programing HP printers to fail for using non-HP ink cartridges.

Thousands of HP printer consumers were frustrated by function failures as they were using non-HP ink cartridges when HP upgraded its firmware on September 13. The failures are believed to have resulted from a software uploaded to consumers’ printers disguised as a firmware update. Moreover, users also found that HP had deliberately deleted all links to the older firmware files from its website.

According to PR Newswire, HP’s sabotage of non-HP ink cartridges is also causing significant economic harm to third party cartridge manufacturers and resellers.

Earlier, HP responded in a statement, admitting it programmed the printers to fail in order, "to protect HP's innovations and intellectual property."