3D printing is a 30-year old technology that is currently entering the mainstream, to great fanfare. Conventional wisdom is that intellectual property has driven innovation by creating competition, which fosters advances in technology because of the need for IP workarounds.
Recently, some innovators have challenged the conventional wisdom, arguing that IP stifles innovation. Applying this thinking to 3D printing, they argue that patents have held back innovation in 3D printing technology and thus because companies are afraid of getting sued, they do not spend the resources to research and develop the technology. This minimizes competition, which keeps prices high and builds barriers to keep new entrants and affordable products out of the market.
Others argue that the only thing holding 3D printing back is the technology itself — printers are either too slow, too cumbersome or incapable of printing objects that people actually want, partly due to limitations in materials. Regardless of where one stands in this debate, the threat of a lawsuit is certainly real and the 3D Printing Patent Wars, like the Smart Phones Wars, are probably not too far down the pike
So is there a reason for the 3D printing start-ups to be excited now? If you follow 3D printing closely, you already know that news of expiring patents has the community buzzing. Several articles have mentioned “key patents” that will soon expire and allow the industry to explode. What you probably have not seen is the identity of those patents and an explanation of the protected technology.
Lawyer and 3DPI Contributor John Hornick has compiled all of the key patents due to expire and they are available for viewing in his article on 3dprintingindustry.com
