Get in Early to Have Your Voice Heard at USPTO Holding

Get in while you can. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will host a meeting on Additive Manufacturing this April. April 9^th at 1 PM ET to be exact, at the USPTO campus in Virginia. The USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, VA will meet and discuss 3D printing at a new prestigious level. The event is first come first serve with contact info listed below, so if interested, be sure to act quickly and head to the “Mother of Presidents” (Virginia). With the forum, the USPTO acknowledges additive manufacturing’s growing presence in various fields such as jewellery, footwear, architecture, engineering and construction, automotive, aerospace, dental, and medical industries.

The meeting will serve as a forum for sharing ideas, experiences and insights between stakeholders and the USPTO. Industry representatives will also provide an overview of the application of additive manufacturing in different technologies. Individual opinions are sought from varying participants, and the meetings are intended to be informal in nature. These partnership groups are formed with full recognition of the USPTO’s responsibility under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), and are not established as FACA compliant committees.

What:              Additive Manufacturing Partnership Meeting

When:             April 9, 2014 at 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET

Where:           USPTO Campus, Madison North Auditorium
600 Dulany Street
Alexandria, VA  22314

I am no lawyer, but this will be a significant exchange of ideas concerning the future of 3DP and its role in US enterprise. As with any industry in modern times, 3DP is global and subject to legal obfuscation with every border it crosses. Not just geographically, but the various mediums its innovation touches act as a crossing and breakdown of former borders. What this forum indicates is the growing interest at the government level for this new technology that is swiftly becoming commonplace. How this affects patents in an industry that promotes CAD sharing and reciprocal communication while at the same time ought to give credit and financial reward to those responsible remains to be seen. We must pay attention and we must take active roles in decisions if the path is to be optimally beneficial for everyone involved.
Source: USPTO