Kickstarter, 3D printer maker Formlabs get hit with a patent lawsuit
[Philip Lelyveld comment: When publicly traded companies with legal rights and obligations and open source companies compete in the same emerging tech space, this type of conflict is bound to surface.]
As reported by Electronista, Formlabs—makers of the Form 1 3D printer—and Kickstarter are the targets of a patent lawsuit filed by 3D Systems, another producer of 3D printers. The lawsuit alleges that Formlabs infringed on a patent held by 3D Systems that relates to the stereolithography 3D-printing process—the process Formlabs uses in the Form 1 printer.
"Although Formlabs has publicly stated that certain patents have expired, 3D Systems believes the Form 1 3D printer infringes at least one of our patents, and we intend to enforce our patent rights," said 3D systems general counsel Andrew Johnson in a release.
...the stereolithography process, as our Kevin Lee put it, "uses a laser to cure liquid resin into microscopic layers." In the case of the Form 1, this allows it to make much more precise creations than a typical extrustion-based 3D printer.