Assignment 6, Blog Post 1: Patents in 3D Printing

This topic was actually brought up (quite randomly actually!) by a friend of mine recently. He works at the machine shop at UC Berkeley, and he mentioned how in 2009, the patent on the 3D printer expired and how everyone started delving into that market, since it was so lucrative. Soon after, smaller desktop 3D printers came out. Thus, I decided to look into it.

According to an article written by John Hornick and Dan Roland on a few months ago, 3D printing is a 30 year technology that has recently starting entering the mainstream, but has not yet become commonplace. Hornick and Roland questioned what is holding this industry back? Some people argue that patents have held back innovation in 3D printing technology, because the companies are worried about getting sued, so they do not spend the resources to develop the technology. This in turn, reduces competition, keeping prices high and creating barriers to discourage others from entering the market. Other people argue that this is not actually the case, and what is holding 3D printers from becoming more commonplace is that the printers are too slow and cumbersome. "Regardless of where one stands in this debate, the threat of a lawsuit is certainly real and the 3D Printing Patent Wars, like Smart Phones Wars, are probably not too far down the pike." [1]

Link 1 below is a very good website to go to for a summary on the key 3D printing patents. Some of them have expired last year or beginning of 2014, but there are still many more that are expiring this month, as well as the next coming months (as well as some in 2015). I just wanted to spend some time talking about the patents that will expire soon and how this will affect the 3D printing industry in general.

There are several patents that are expiring in just the next few days (on March 11th):

Patent 5,609,812 is titled, "Method of Making a Three-Dimensional Object by Stereolithography". This is for making a 3D object from a medium that will soilidify after exposure to synergistic stimulation, such as ultra violet or infared radiation. While stereolithography is a very common invention, this method improves on it by allowing to identify an endpoint of the first vector and the beginning of the second vector (the vectors define the pattern of exposure). The invention also comprises a method for scanning at a fixed velocity along the first vector and mechanically blocking the UV or IR.

Patent 5,609,813 is also titled "Method of Making a Three-Dimensional Object by Stereolithography." This goes back to what we discussed in class this week on how  mulitple patents can have the same name. However, since patents talk about innovation, their claims must be different. This patent protects a method of applying a layer or flowable material, generating and sequencing the pattern of exposure paths for the layer, and exposing these paths to the UV/IR radiation according to the sequence. To me, this sounded really broad at first, but I'm sure there are more details that can easily be discerned by someone who is knowledgeable in the area.

Patent 5,610,824 is titled, "Rapid and Accurate Production of Stereolithographic Parts".  This patent protects an apparatus and a method for the same type of process talked about in the first two patents. We also discussed in class what can be patented (basically anything made by man). While the previous two patents protected methods (or processes), this patent protects both a product (a container with the medium) and a method (generating a beam of radiation). Here, what is different is that the beam of radiation has different first and second intensities and thus the two lines are scanned at different intensities. This is useful for large and complex objects, because the laser can be directed over portions of the material without curing a significant amount. 

A patent that I am interested in is expiring June 2nd of this year. This patent (No. 5,503,785)  protects a process for producing 3D objects having overhanging fragments freely suspended in space. I believe that once this patent expires, many others will come into the market, since it is a huge space.

The article concluded by saying that it is unknown "when the major battles of the 3D Printing Patent Wars will begin. New laws, evolving technology, and an unpredictable economy might affect 3D printing more than any of these patents. Thus, if would be imprudent to say that the expiration of one or more of them is the key to growth because the market can dictate otherwise."[1]

[1] http://3dprintingindustry.com/2013/12/29/many-3d-printing-patents-expiring-soon-heres-round-overview/