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[-] dhhyfddehhfyy4673@fedia.io 175 points 4 months ago

Daily reminder that IP law is fucking stupid.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 82 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

And always about protecting the hegemony of the rich and powerful.

It's never about the struggling artist/inventor just wanting to be paid for their work as the lobbyists and the politicians they own pretend every time they want to fuck over regular people some more.

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[-] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 112 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

US9421713B2 - Additive manufacturing method for printing three-dimensional parts with purge towers

US9592660B2 - Heated build platform and system for three-dimensional printing methods

US7555357B2 - Method for building three-dimensional objects with extrusion-based layered deposition systems

US9168698B2 - Three-dimensional printer with force detection

US10556381B2 - Three-dimensional printer with force detection

That's like all of 3d printing, that's pretty scary. If they win on all 5, seems like it'd kill consumer 3d printing entirely.

[-] Schmeckinger@lemmy.world 59 points 4 months ago

When I look at these patents all of them seem to be patenting others inventions from years ago. So I hope prior art wins.

[-] huginn@feddit.it 39 points 4 months ago

Which would also strip them of each of those patents.

[-] FinalRemix@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago

Stop! I can only get so erect.

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 56 points 4 months ago

Why can they even patent stuff they didn't invent?

[-] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 55 points 4 months ago

Better lawyers. Patent law is so f'd up. Few understand it and those that do take advantage of it.

[-] thisbenzingring 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I read the heated bed patent and it was about the way it's built, so I'm not convinced it's a general hot bed patent but something more small detail about how they are using it.

I suspect someone will need to do more research and this article is a knee jerk reaction

[-] Thunderbird4@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago

Eastern District of Texas is extremely favorable to patent trolls. It’s not a coincidence that they filed the suit there.

[-] Hexbatch@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

I hope one day it will be illegal to shop for judges to shut down tech companies

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 8 points 4 months ago

That seems geared only towards FDM printers, so SLA (resin) is still ok-ish? I do suppose those really big powder printers could also suffer.

[-] magic_smoke@links.hackliberty.org 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

So when do we have fun with the ip owners in moonbase alpha?

[-] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 89 points 4 months ago

Patent trolls doing patent troll things. Stratasys no longer provides usable value to the enterprise market and they're stagnating bad, their only hope is to start suppressing competition through overly broad, unrefined patents obviously tailored to provide a blanket market lockout.

They've done it before and they'll do it again. Fuck Stratasys, uncompetitive monopolistic fucks.

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 19 points 4 months ago

I hope it gets tossed out of court considering companies have been freely using these patents for years and their just now going after someone because Bambu has been so much more successful than a lot of the cottage-type companies who'd previously been building most printers. You can't simply wait for a big fish to decide to start enforcing your patent rights because by then it's been used to much without any push back that you've effectively given up the rights.

[-] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 4 months ago

There is certainly a lot of precedent for them not defending patents, especially those now expired.

Unfortunately this is the Texas circuit court so any kind of critical thinking or obvious precedent won't matter, and the biggest corporation will win by default until appealed. We will just have to hopee Bambu has the resources to survive in the US market until then, as the court will likely force a stop sale injunction or large penalties on device sales.

[-] Hugin@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

You can lose trademarks if you knowingly don't defend them but it's pretty hard to lose a patent. Even it gets added to a standard you participate it just goes into FRAND.

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 2 points 4 months ago

I think I got the two mixed up then. Regardless (I'm probably preaching to the choir), this seems like a ridiculous lawsuit and I hope they get sent packing.

[-] Hugin@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

I'm not a big fan of these patents having been awarded and patent law needs serious overhaul. That said I think there is a good chance the lawsuit is successful. Three are a lot of patents in 3D printing that the open source community is just waiting for them to expire.

[-] YeetPics@mander.xyz 58 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Lmao, as an idiot trying to get a 20y/o stratysys running at work, I can see why they're trying to sue.

Their machines are trash and wildly outdated, DRM spools locked into cases and disposable beds are GARBAGE.

Turns out they spent a lot of time developing the 'cutting edge' FDM tech from 30 years ago and can't quite keep up with their coreXY counterparts.

[-] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 4 months ago

The old adage: Young companies innovate while old companies litigate.

[-] Dkarma@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago
[-] YeetPics@mander.xyz 1 points 3 months ago

The print beds are SINGLE USE injection molded ABS(I think it's ABS, anyhow).

They snap over the heating element and seem to be a gigantic waste of resources. You can tell R&D was pushed to make their machines as profitable as possible by avoiding reusable parts.

You can't refill their spool cassettes either without some RFID hacking.

It's fuckin' bogus.

[-] apemint@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

We have 3 Stratasys printers at work and yeah, you're absolutely correct.

To add, their 'professional' slicer program "Insight" is the most user hostile piece of software I've ever laid my eyes on. Straight out of 1992 levels of awful. The workflow, the UI (if you can call it that), everything.

The other 'user friendly' slicer is "GrabCAD Print", an Apple style piece of garbage. It lacks everything beyond basic functionality, yet lately they've been pumping it full of subscription locked features.

Honestly, fuck this company.

[-] kurap1ka@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Edit: nevermind my reading comprehension is stuck at kindergarten level

[-] Takumidesh@lemmy.world 53 points 4 months ago

Good news is, you will never be able to stop hobbyist 3d printing.

Sorry patent trolls, you can't make aluminum extrusion, stepper motors, an extruder, and a short circuit illegal.

[-] SpaceMan9000@lemmy.world 36 points 4 months ago

The problem is that most people aren't making RepRap printers from scratch, they're buying kits which has everything included.

Bambu makes decent gear, I don't think we want to have the only option being Chinese machines which always makes compromises to make it cheaper. And that's coming from a person who uses Chinese printers.

[-] pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 4 months ago

Are there any American made printers?

[-] brian@programming.dev 6 points 4 months ago

a voron is american made depending on where you make it

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

Pretty much anything is American made depending on where you make it though

[-] brian@programming.dev 1 points 4 months ago

yeah but I'm not going to be able to make a Bambu printer in the US since it is a product produced by a Chinese company. A Voron is different since I can source parts from US based companies and put it together myself in the US.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

I don’t think we want to have the only option being Chinese machines

When you shut everyone else down, they're the only guys left with the freedom to do business.

[-] jabjoe@feddit.uk 28 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

These patents seam trivial obvious ones. Hope they get knocked down during the case.

[-] duckman@lemm.ee 20 points 4 months ago
[-] TWeaK@lemm.ee 25 points 4 months ago

Almost not surprising. Inventors and R&D businesses patent things all the time, then it takes a while to claim them. There was a guy in Australia who apparently invented WiFi (he calls it "wiffey") and he successfully asserted his patent against WiFi manufacturers worldwide such that they paid him a couple pennies in royalties for every chip manufactured.

The saving grace is that patents only last for 20 years. After that, anyone can use the design, like Gillette's double edged safety razor (which is why their modern razors are so silly and change every few years).

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this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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