3D Printing, IP and Industry: Update

Any technology that is routinely referred to as “disruptive” or “revolutionary” is going to run into problems integrating with current business models. 3D printing, or additive manufacturing (AM) if you prefer, is no exception. We discussed some of the potential problems in the original 3D Printing, IP and Industry editorial. Here you’ll find some updates as Rapid Ready continues to follow AM.

Companies have already begun to try to use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as an umbrella to protect what they feel is their intellectual property (IP). As a quick refresher, the DMCA was signed into law in 1998. The DMCA basically strengthens IP as a response to the internet as part of digital rights management.

Lexmark is a good example of companies trying to apply DMCA to technical ideas. In 2002, Lexmark sued chip manufacturer Static Control Components (SCC). Lexmark complained that SCC had infringed its copyrights by creating replacement chips that allowed used printer cartridges to be refilled. Lexmark claimed that the software that ran the replacement chips was a result of reverse engineering of the chips the company placed in cartridges.

Eventually in 2007, the Sixth Circuit court ruled in favor of SCC. The court decided that the Lexmark software was insufficiently creative to deserve copyright protection and, “the authentication handshake did not effectively protect the software because printer owners could directly access the software through other open interfaces.”

2007 is old news, right? Not so fast. Much more recently, a user on Thingiverse designed and printed the Penrose Triangle (an optical illusion that was supposed to be impossible to build). Another user figured out how it was done and uploaded the files to Thingiverse. The first user promptly sent a DMCA takedown.

The incident was eventually smoothed over when the DMCA claim was dropped, but the whole mess was likely the impetus for Thingiverse’s change to its terms of service. In the world of IP battles where giants like Apple and Samsung collide in open warfare, the Thingiverse incident was barely a skirmish, but it wouldn’t be hard to view the incident as the first shot in the eventual 3D printing battle.

Below you’ll find a video in which members of the 3D printing industry talk to policymakers about the effects of the technology.

Sources: Electronic Frontier Foundation, Popular Mechanics