Jon,
Not to worry, I did not take anything you said as negative.
I have not followed the ITC Section 337 investigations.
My main problem with all third party B&W inks is that the great carbon that is available to that segment deserves great color pigments to pull it neutral when needed. At this point, I don't think the market will believe that any third party color is in that category. I hope you've noticed the dilution and worked the numbers on the toner formula I'm proposing. My fade test will take a few months to show results, but if they are good, you might recall that the first custom ink mix was a Variable Tone Piezo. (See what's left of the history at http://www.spinics.net/lists/epson/old/2001_01/msg02842.html -- the more things change, the more they stay the same.)
Paul