Keurig’s new line of coffee machines will feature a technological restriction on what coffee you can use in it. If your coffee of choice hasn’t paid a licensing fee to Keurig Green Mountain (the company’s new name; I’m going to keep calling it “Keurig” because the new name is dumb), you’re out of luck. According to an article at Quartz.com:
…Keurig is planning to fight back with its Keurig 2.0 machines, which will have technology that makes it incompatible with unlicensed pods. The company claims that the move is about making a better or more consistent cup of coffee, but its competitors seem to think otherwise.Treehouse Foods, the biggest manufacturer of private-label K-cups, issuing Keurig, arguing that the new machines are anti-competitive.
We have a Keurig in my office. It was a stupid purchase, and I regret it. I only use it when someone wants a cup of coffee and I don’t feel like waiting for the kettle to boil for the French press. My frustration with the machine is that the coffee is pre-ground. But I know it is popular. I just didn’t realize how popular the third-party, unlicensed coffee pods (“K-Cups,” in Keurig’s corporate parlance) are.
How useless is a coffee pot if you can’t use your own coffee? This isn’t about quality, it is about control. I hope the new line of machines fail spectacularly. They are due to be released this fall, so we shall see.
To my mind, this is the second coming of Lexmark v. Static Control Components, a long-running dispute over the authentication system in Lexmark’s toner cartridges designed to keep other manufacturers from selling compatible replacements. It was a mess when I was in law school, and it apparently still is. Hopefully, these new pods will be reverse-engineered in no time. Unfortunately for Keurig, one of the third-party manufacturers, Treehouse Foods, has already filed suit. Time will tell if Keurig will counter-sue.