Bill Esler

Adobe Should Dissolve FedEx Kinko’s Deal

Following Adobe Forum, NAPL, NAQP and Coalition for Open Competition Remain Firm: Adobe Should Dissolve Agreement With FedEx Kinko’s
And Remove FedEx Kinko’s Logo and Link from Software

In July letter to Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen, Association heads and Coalition participants state intention
to pursue “any and all options” should Adobe solution fall short of expectations.

PARAMUS, NJ, JULY 24, 2007 – In a July 20, 2007, letter to Adobe Systems, Inc. CEO Bruce Chizen, Joseph P. Truncale, president and chief executive officer of NAPL (www.napl.org), the trade association for excellence in graphic communications management, and Steve Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Quick Printers (NAQP), stated that their position regarding the Adobe/FedEx Kinko’s agreement remains as follows: Adobe should extricate itself from the agreement and remove the FedEx Kinko’s logo and embedded link from Adobe software in a timely manner.

The letter followed a July 17, 2007, Print Advisory Forum held in San Francisco, CA, and called by Adobe to explore the issue. NAPL and NAQP sent the letter on behalf of NAPL Network members and of the Graphic Communications Coalition for Open Competition. In addition to NAPL and NAQP, Coalition participants as of July 20 when the letter was mailed (additional firms have joined since) were Kevin Cushing, chief executive officer, AlphaGraphics, Inc.; Andrew Hrywnak, president, Print Three Franchising Corp.; Michael Jutt, executive vice president and director of Training, Minuteman Press International, Inc.; Richard Lowe, president, Sir Speedy; Carl Gerhardt, president and chief executive officer, Allegra Network; Bob Metzger, vice chairman, International Center for Entrepreneurial Development (ICED); Catherine Monson, president, PIP; and Steve Morris, chief executive officer, Signal Graphics (SAMPA Corp).

NAQP’s Steve Johnson and several members of the Graphic Communications Coalition for Open Competition participated by invitation from Adobe in the company’s July 17, 2007, Print Advisory Forum, which Adobe had called to “facilitate a dialog.”

At that Print Advisory Forum,
Adobe indicated it would communicate a solution to the situation in two weeks. In their July 20, 2007, letter, NAPL’s Truncale and NAQP’s Johnson stated that “during that period, we will continue to examine any and all options open to us—legal and otherwise—should Adobe’s solution fall short of our expectations.”

The Graphic Communications Coalition for Open Competition
was formed in June 2007 in response to an announcement that month by Adobe Systems of its agreement with FedEx Kinko’s in which the latest versions of AdobeReader and Adobe Acrobat software feature an embedded connection to FedEx Kinko’s PrintOnline application.

A June 15 letter to Adobe’s Chizen
from Truncale and Johnson was a prompt response to the announced agreement and was followed by a flurry of protests from companies and organizations throughout the graphic communications industry. In their June letter, Truncale and Johnson expressed their disappointment in the agreement, which they said provides “an unfair competitive advantage to FedEx Kinko’s. . .at the expense of the many other printers—including many of our members—who have played such a pivotal role in establishing Adobe as the de facto standard among many end users for reading documents and printing file submission.”

This expression of concern
to Adobe is a reflection of the commitment of NAPL and its partners in The NAPL Network—NAQP and the Research and Engineering Council of NAPL—to speak out on issues affecting their members.

Posted by Bill Esler on July 24, 2007 | Comments (3)