3D printing and Intellectual Property

© Joren De Wachter

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Gartner tech hype curve July 2013

The Past

Reverse Engineer !

The Present:

“Some” Customization

Found a file

Merge the 2 together

Very unique geometry

Cost of copying goes to zero

Cost of personalization goes to zero

Value of personalization

Value of Personalization

Cost of PersonalizationCost of Copy

Value of Copy

What does this mean?

1.Every product becomes unique

2.Every product embeds some innovation

3.Innovation differs in each product

Intellectual Property is:

• Based on classical industrial production methods: large upfront investment, return through production of large amounts of copies.

• Fundamentally based on the concept of “copy”

• Creates artificial scarcity through legal reproduction and distribution monopoly

Which one is a copy?1

2

3 & 4

5

Impact of 3D printing on IP

• Patents

• Copyright

• Trademarks

• Design rights

Patents

• Facts:– core technology is old; core patents expired– number of printable materials grows fast– technology is branching out– Open Source hardware– Open Source software

technology cycles are shortening

Patents

• Impact– how to enforce patents against a crowd?– materials: no bottleneck like 2D printing – “public” or “prior art” is growing much more

rapidly than patents - genie is out of the bottle

• Conclusion: not good

Copyright

• Facts: where is it?– in objects: mostly not– in design: a bit - but which bit?– in digital files: ?• automatically generated code?• is the code a copy of the design?• function vs expression• derivative vs transformative• secondary liability - induce infringement• role of creative commons

Copyright

• Impact:– what is a copy?– where is the value? • In the ability to personalize• Copyright does not capture

that value well at all

• Conclusion: lots of litigation ahead - or is there?

Who is winning?

Who is winning?

Trademarks

• Value of a brand?

• Control of a brand?

Trademarks

• Spare parts: block or enable?

• Second-hand market: block or enable?

• Community aspects: control vs influence?

Trademarks

• Conclusion: – 3D printing strengthens the trend

where value shifts from product to relationship

– clever use of personalisation of manufacturing can increase brand value

– “traditional” IP approach may cause more damage

Design Rights

• Registered designs / unregistered designs / design patents– breach?– value?– enforceability?

Texts from the 20th century• Art 19 EU regulation n° 6/2002

Rights conferred by the Community design

1. A registered Community design shall confer on its holder the exclusive right to use it and to prevent any third party not having his consent from using it. The aforementioned use shall cover, in particular, the making, offering, putting on the market, importing, exporting or using of a product in which the design is incorporated or to which it is applied, or stocking such a product for those purposes.

2. An unregistered Community design shall, however, confer on its holder the right to prevent the acts referred to in paragraph 1 only if the contested use results from copying the protected design. The contested use shall not be deemed to result from copying the protected design if it results from an independent work of creation by a designer who may be reasonably thought not to be familiar with the design made available to the public by the holder.

Design Rights

• Design as a service

• When design becomes a value contributor in one version only of a new product - what is the value of blocking additional copies?

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The Wealth of Ideas

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