1 Topic by willbarwell

  • willbarwell
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Topic: 3D printing & intellectual property

Hello everyone,
I am a student studying product design at university and I am currently writing my dissertation on 3D printing and intellectual property. I am looking at whether the widespread adoption of 3D printing and CAD software could be a threat to the design industry and designers IP.
I would love to get the opinions of 3D printer users and industry professionals on the subject, so could I pose a few questions to discuss:

1) If the use of 3D printers becomes widespread will designers have to be worried about people illegally downloading and printing their designs

2) Could 3D printing be a threat to parts of the design industry itself, if people are downloading and printing lots of items could this render designing these objects obsolete in the future? E.g. Will people bother buying objects that they could either download for free or easily create themselves?

3) Will IP law have to change to prevent the printing of copied designs? Currently, as far as I’m aware, printing most objects for personal use is legal, even if the object is patented. Do you think the law will have to change if 3D printers become used in most homes?

Many thanks.

2 Reply by Tin Falcon

  • Tin Falcon
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Re: 3D printing & intellectual property

Will first of all  the following is my opinion. That with $1.50 will get a small cup of coffee at the local convenience store chain.
First of all you need to ask the right questions to the the right answers,

1) Like anything else tangible or virtual/digital. If you want to control it you secure it and limit access to trusted people. Leave it in a public place and it is subject to theft  being copied whatever.
2) People will always want a better ______________________      how we get it may change. While the availability of CAD software and 3D printers  puts powerful design tools into the hands of the home hobbyist/home inventor it also opens opportunity for the talented to market there designs directly to the public.
3)3D printing and 3D scanning  are disruptive technologies.  They are changing the design process and 3-d scanning is a powerful reverse engineering tool. Like any other tool there is the power to create and the power to copy others ideas. 
Will laws have to change ? Likely!, laws change everyday. some add restrictions some  add to freedoms.


3D printing has been part of the movement open source colaberation. More on this read .
http://mercatus.org/publication/permiss … al-freedom

hope this helps
Tin

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3 Reply by n2ri

  • n2ri
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Re: 3D printing & intellectual property

also it takes much longer to 3D print an object than it can be mass produced the old way. so I dont think there is much threat of little Tommy or Grandpa Jones downloading much of anything that they can 3D print and beat the desiggner out of the 1st million dollars to. lol

plus 3D printed materials are not as durable or detailed as the same item made on a metal lathe or other normal ways. they are mostly for R&D fast scale prototyping for proof of concept or maybe small trinkets. and any product that was designed for this use like a game piece etc. already has public use laws not to resell the design itself as another persons creation and to give design credit to the designer if downloaded from a 3D file depository. or the files are simply not offered to public as Tin stated.

nearly all 3D files used from places like Thingaverse.com are printed and the finished print (mostly scaled down or replacement parts, toys) are either used by the person printing them or sold to others at barely enough to cover cost time and materials to print them.

so the short answer for the foreseeable future at this time is= NO cad designers have very little worrys of losing their IP unles a cheap foriegn country does it and no international laws protect from that on anything already.

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