New company Northeast Equipment Services is complaining to the Office of Fair Trading after Agfa wrote to suppliers asking them not to provide Northeast with certain kit parts.

The three-staff Thetford firm set up in June offering spare parts and servicing for Technigraph processors. But Agfa sent letters to its own suppliers raising concern about components.

Phillip Allwork, director of Northeast, said he didnt need to be "bullied by the big boys".

He said: "Why are Agfa worried about three people in business? What are we going to do to the big Agfa organisations that warrants them putting letters out to their suppliers telling them not to deal with us?"

Hugh Harkett, Agfa UK Graphic Systems manufacturing general manager, wrote that its suppliers might be approached by NES to supply them with component parts normally supplied to Agfa. This was not acceptable, he said.

Harkett told PrintWeek he worried about proprietary components designed by Agfa. "Im not stopping NES doing anything, all Im asking our suppliers is to protect our intellectual property rights."

But Allwork said his business was with Technigraph kit and added that "we havent done anything on the Agfa side".

His two colleagues are Lucy Read and Alan Lucas and all three were former directors of Technigraph, taken over by Global Graphics in 1999.

Global Graphics has also written to its suppliers about NES and another firm called Flame. The letter raises similar concerns over intellectual property rights.

Its chief operating officer Gary Jones asked his suppliers to contact Global if approached by NES. He was unavailable for comment.

Allwork said: "We expected Global to do this because we were key people in the organisation and talked to their major customers, but why Agfa? We dont talk to their staff or customers."

Story by Jez Abbott