Many non-HP cartridges used in its printers are manufactured in China, and HP has now upset these manufacturers and HP printer owners by disallowing private label ink cartridges in its printers.

Online ink seller 123inkt confirmed that HP printers started to reject non-HP cartridges on September 13, 2016. Printers displayed the error message "One or more cartridges appear to be damaged. Remove them and replace them with new cartridges," as reported originally by Myce.com.

HP intentionally added a failure date of September 13 to all non-HP cartridges in the firmware of its printers.

"Affected printers will continue to work with refilled cartridges if they contain the original HP security chip. Other cartridges possibly don't work," an HP representative told media. HP says it wants to maintain the integrity of its intellectual property, so it has the right to disallow other types of printer cartridges.

Some users are able to circumvent HP's blockade by downloading firmware from 2014, but the operations involved in updating printers via this method are beyond the skills of normal users, according to Chinese media.