Users of the K-cup coffee company’s products have counter-attacked its efforts to restrict the brands that their new machines can brew.

So I understand why these companies come up with nonsense like this. They make relatively little money out of selling the base equipment, and then charge plenty, ongoing, for the “cartridges” – what coffee makers and inkjet printers have in common!

But fundamentally, it’s bad business strategy. Building in these hindrances for clients (and lobbying the government for legislation to criminalise using equipment in a certain way) is going to backfire.