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That’s like all of 3d printing, that’s pretty scary. If they win on all 5, seems like it’d kill consumer 3d printing entirely.
When I look at these patents all of them seem to be patenting others inventions from years ago. So I hope prior art wins.
Which would also strip them of each of those patents.
Stop! I can only get so erect.
Why can they even patent stuff they didn’t invent?
Better lawyers. Patent law is so f’d up. Few understand it and those that do take advantage of it.
Eastern District of Texas is extremely favorable to patent trolls. It’s not a coincidence that they filed the suit there.
I hope one day it will be illegal to shop for judges to shut down tech companies
I read the heated bed patent and it was about the way it’s built, so I’m not convinced it’s a general hot bed patent but something more small detail about how they are using it.
I suspect someone will need to do more research and this article is a knee jerk reaction
That seems geared only towards FDM printers, so SLA (resin) is still ok-ish? I do suppose those really big powder printers could also suffer.
Good news is, you will never be able to stop hobbyist 3d printing.
Sorry patent trolls, you can’t make aluminum extrusion, stepper motors, an extruder, and a short circuit illegal.
The problem is that most people aren’t making RepRap printers from scratch, they’re buying kits which has everything included.
Bambu makes decent gear, I don’t think we want to have the only option being Chinese machines which always makes compromises to make it cheaper. And that’s coming from a person who uses Chinese printers.
Are there any American made printers?
a voron is american made depending on where you make it
Pretty much anything is American made depending on where you make it though
yeah but I’m not going to be able to make a Bambu printer in the US since it is a product produced by a Chinese company. A Voron is different since I can source parts from US based companies and put it together myself in the US.
Isn’t Prusa expanding to the US or something? Thought I saw it somewhere.
I don’t think we want to have the only option being Chinese machines
When you shut everyone else down, they’re the only guys left with the freedom to do business.
These patents seam trivial obvious ones. Hope they get knocked down during the case.
Umm… Wow… Wtf?
Almost not surprising. Inventors and R&D businesses patent things all the time, then it takes a while to claim them. There was a guy in Australia who apparently invented WiFi (he calls it “wiffey”) and he successfully asserted his patent against WiFi manufacturers worldwide such that they paid him a couple pennies in royalties for every chip manufactured.
The saving grace is that patents only last for 20 years. After that, anyone can use the design, like Gillette’s double edged safety razor (which is why their modern razors are so silly and change every few years).
