As 3-D Printing Takes Hold, IP Issues Loom

While 3-D printing hasn’t exactly taken the consumer market by storm, it has been embraced by many manufacturers and the parameters of some IP issues are starting to emerge, with some possibly expensive litigation in the wings, according to Robins Kaplan attorney Bryan J. Vogel. One area of potential controversy involves replacement parts for a patented object. The owner may argue it has the right “to preserve the useful life of that object and may be able to produce a wide range of replacement parts for the patented object, even if the replacement activity is done on a commercial scale.” The writer looks at this and a number of other trends in a technology that he says will play a role “in a wide range of conversations and conversions of existing legal, market and business rules.”