Potential Painful Blow to FDM Printing in the US

just4memike · August 10, 2024, 2:59am

If true… this is a big, big deal. The person in the video doesn’t think so, but it definitely looks really bad to me.

TLDR, Stratasys is claiming the right to patents for heated beds, purge towers, force detection, what appears to be general 3D printing (vague info), among other things. I believe there are 5 filings in total. But IMO, this could effectively end consumer FDM 3D printing in the US (although you will still be able to make your own personal device, but not buy one).

There isn’t a manufacturer that will disregard these patents and bring out another printer without paying a licensing fee (if Stratasys plays fair). Unfortunately, I don’t see any reason for them to play all that fair, as this can effectively skirt US anti-trust laws and tamp down any competition. By offering licensing at whatever price that makes their products appealing, they can claim they are following the law, but in reality, they know what that would mean.

If there is anyone with more info, I’d love to hear if there is something we are missing that can makes sense of this situation. But again… this looks very dire.

drakko · August 10, 2024, 4:11am

Looks to me like a repeat “Stratasys vs Afinia” story, where Stratasys (MakerBot) asks the TX court once more, this time against BL and other Chinese printer manufacturers, for an injunctive relief and comprehensive financial compensations for an allegedly breach of its 3D printing patents.

What I could find pertaining to this matter:

COURT: E.D. Tex.
TRACK DOCKETS: No. 2:24-cv-00644 and No. 2:24-cv-00645 
Stratasys Ltd. filed sued multiple Chinese companies alleging they infringed its patents by creating and selling 3D printers under the Bambu Lab label.

Stratasys sent a notice letter to Beijing Tiertime Technology Co., Beijing Yinhua Laser Rapid Prototyping and Mould Technology Co., Shanghai Lunkuo Technology Co., and Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology Co., along with Tuozhu units Bambulab Ltd. and Tuozhu Technology Ltd., about Stratasys’s infringement concerns Aug. 5, according to two separate complaints filed Thursday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Justia Dockets & Filings Fifth Circuit Texas Eastern District Stratasys, Inc. v. Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology Co. Ltd. et al

Stratasys, Inc. v. Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology Co. Ltd. et al

Stratasys, Inc.

Shanghai Lunkuo Technology Co. Ltd., Tuozhu Technology Limited, Beijing Tiertime Technology Co. Ltd., Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology Co. Ltd., Beijing Yinhua Laser Rapid Prototyping and Mould Technology Co. Ltd. and Bambulab Ltd.

2:2024cv00644

August 8, 2024

US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

Rodney Gilstrap

Patent: 35 U.S.C. § 271 Patent Infringement

(Stratasys, Inc. v. Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology Co. Ltd. et al :: Justia Dockets & Filings)

Docket Report

This docket was last retrieved on August 8, 2024. A more recent docket listing may be available from PACER.

Filing 9
NOTICE of Attorney Appearance by Aashish Gautam Kapadia on behalf of Stratasys, Inc. (Kapadia, Aashish)

Filing 8
NOTICE of Attorney Appearance by Brian W Oaks on behalf of Stratasys, Inc. (Oaks, Brian)

Filing 7
NOTICE of Attorney Appearance by Syed Kamil Fareed on behalf of Stratasys, Inc. (Fareed, Syed)

Filing 6
SUMMONS Issued as to Bambulab Ltd., Beijing Tiertime Technology Co. Ltd., Beijing Yinhua Laser Rapid Prototyping and Mould Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Lunkuo Technology Co. Ltd., Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology Co. Ltd., Tuozhu Technology Limited.
(Attachments: #1 Additional Attachment(s), #2 Additional Attachment(s), #3 Additional Attachment(s), #4 Additional Attachment(s), #5 Additional Attachment(s))(NKL)

Filing 5
Fed. R. Civ. P. 7.1(a)(1) Disclosure Statement filed by Stratasys, Inc. identifying Interested Party Stratasys Solutions Ltd., Interested Party Stratasys Ltd. for Stratasys, Inc… (Fair, Andrea)

Filing 4
DEMAND for Trial by Jury by Stratasys, Inc… (Fair, Andrea)

Filing 3
Notice of Filing of Patent/Trademark Form (AO 120). AO 120 emailed to the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. (Fair, Andrea)

Filing 2
SUMMONS Issued as to Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology Co. Ltd… (Attachments: #1 Additional Attachment(s), #2 Additional Attachment(s))(NKL)

Filing 1
COMPLAINT against Bambulab Ltd., Beijing Tiertime Technology Co. Ltd., Beijing Yinhua Laser Rapid Prototyping and Mould Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Lunkuo Technology Co. Ltd., Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology Co. Ltd., Tuozhu Technology Limited ( Filing fee $ 405 receipt number ATXEDC-10286645.), filed by Stratasys, Inc… (Attachments: #1 Civil Cover Sheet)(Fair, Andrea)

Case Assigned to District Judge Rodney Gilstrap. (NKL)

In accordance with the provisions of 28 USC Section 636(c), you are hereby notified that a U.S. Magistrate Judge of this district court is available to conduct any or all proceedings in this case including a jury or non-jury trial and to order the entry of a final judgment. The form #Consent to Proceed Before Magistrate Judge is available on our website. All signed consent forms, excluding pro se parties, should be filed electronically using the event Notice Regarding Consent to Proceed Before Magistrate Judge. (NKL)

TX Court Docket information

Olias · August 10, 2024, 1:39pm

Wow!!! This is indeed scary.

I read through it and watched the video. While I dislike companies engaging in patent troll-like behavior, Stratasys isn’t a troll since they actively manufacture their IP. However, they targeted a vulnerable company. Bambu, with its walled garden approach and selective use of open and closed architecture, has exposed itself to IP litigation. In contrast, Prusa, with much of its IP donated to the open-source community, is less susceptible to such lawsuits.

They picked their target well. Why didn’t they also name Prusa?

However, here is where I see weaknesses, I’ll only focus on the 2 of 5 patents they mention in the suit but the other claims are equally vulnerable.

Heated beds - Their patent states that it was filed in 2017. OK, so the first RepRap heated bed was introduced in the community and Josep Prusa himself released his design in 2009.

So what are they going to do? Sue the open source community? Good luck with that.

They claim that purge towers are their IP from 2016. From my research MakerBot(acquired by StrataSys) introduced that in 2013. So they have legal point here.

OK but the genie is out of the bottle as so many open source printers use this, again, are they going to sue the open source community too?

They are leaving themselves wide-open to counter-litigation having patented technology that was already prior art(heated bed) and therefore could be challenged and risk losing their patents.

Depending on how deeply both sides dig in, if they both decide they can’t afford to lose this suit and Stratasys wins, what next? Sue the open source community? It could escalate and become a landmark case in the vein of “Industry Giant” vs. “Open Source.”

Déjà vu – 1986 all over again?

This reminds me of two companies in the eighties. The first was a small Long Island, NY-based company called Symbol Technologies (acquired by Motorola Systems), which sued the barcode industry in '86 for violating its 1960s patent on a “Handheld Scanning Device.” The patent was so broad that it covered anything held in one’s hand that scanned something and transferred the data to a computer. Symbol Technologies won that suit and ever since then, they got huge royalties from anyone making a handheld barcode scanner. They grew from a modest $20 million company in 1985 to a $200 to $600 million company within two to three years, if memory serves.

The second company was Rodime, based in Scotland, which had a large disk drive technology portfolio. Rodime went out of business because they couldn’t compete in the market. A group of enterprising lawyers then purchased the company’s portfolio and went into the lawsuit business.

If Stratasys wins this case but loses in the marketplace, will they transform themselves into a Law suit company? If that happens as the YouTube video points out, it could end the home 3D printer market or at least slow it down dramatically.

Kenny89 · August 10, 2024, 1:57pm

I wonder what @BambuLab has to share about this. How do they feel about this and do they think they will win ? will we lose all our printers if they lose ? will the compagny go down and bankrupt?

JonRaymond · August 10, 2024, 2:11pm

Companies are not going to share information or comment about ongoing litigation against them.

steellegj · August 10, 2024, 2:22pm

I will be buying more bambu printers to show my support!

rsilvers · August 10, 2024, 2:45pm

Even if Bambu had to stop using a purge tower, they could just purge into the chute and then pressurize the nozzle on the infill. The wall width thing is no big deal. If you disable that in the slicer, no one will notice or care.

Silverwolf5636 · August 10, 2024, 2:45pm

This will never hold up in court. You can easily argue that prime towers are integral to the process of multicolor/ multi-material printing. There’s no way they can patent multicolor or multi-material printing. That’s akin to telling you which role of filament you’re allowed to use to print with.

Mullen8er · August 10, 2024, 2:54pm

I found this article at 3dprintingindustry. com saying most of their patents have expired. And that the last patent was for a heated build chamber not a heated bed.

Olias · August 10, 2024, 3:02pm

Link please???

PrinterMcgee · August 10, 2024, 3:06pm

Gruff Charlton Heston Voice You can have my printer when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!

drakko · August 10, 2024, 3:38pm

No one will lose his/her acquired printers, nor will anyone of us be forced to give it up or no longer use it. Their claims of alleged IP infringement by BL & others (note that all targeted companies are China based, and not in the US) still needs to hold water in court, and such litigation could be lengthy…
What BL intends to do on this matter, remains to be seen… if the litigation is lost by BL & others, it could (possibly) mean that BL might have to stop producing printers relaying on the alleged IP infringements, come up with newer models (which might not be that attractive to users), or it might have to close shop (especially if the court awards Stratasys heavy financial compensations)…But, as I’ve said, this is at this point in time just speculation. We don’t have the required info (besides what transpires in media) nor do we have any idea on how BL’s legal team (alone or jointly with the others) are planning to argue their case. Time will tell.

In what it concern us (users/customers), the only downside I foresee at this time, when and if Stratasys’s legal team is successful, would be having to chase for aftermarket items and components to replace the ones expired or damaged. Furthermore,
it could also mean that (most likely) there will be no more software/firmware updates from BL for the infringing printers it has already sold, and that X1Plus might turn out to be the new reference firmware for many of us.

Additional reading for you guys (and possibly for BL’s legal team- if interested) on how Afinia’s legal team argued on the invalidity of the alleged IP patents infringements: Afinia Responds to Stratasys: Your Patents Are Invalid and Your Threats are Anti-Competitive - Make:

That being said, I do recall the formal promise and commitment made by the CEO of BL in a public statement, not so long ago, where he stated that when BL will be no longer able to provide technical and material support to its customers, BL will render its proprietary coding public, making it "open source ".

Matt3dj · August 10, 2024, 3:52pm

And this will only affect the US. Bambulab manufactures in China, and ships worldwide, so the rest of us will not see any change.

drakko · August 10, 2024, 4:00pm

It will affect BL operations everywhere, not just in China. What won’t be affected (sort of) will be the existing users already owning a BL printer. But eventually, every existing user is going to be affected by BL’s eventual loss in court as it would mean looking for parts, firmware updates and support elsewhere… (hopefully, this will mean the open source community)

zackza · August 10, 2024, 4:13pm

After reading this, and knowing the political reasons behind most big lawsuits, i really wonder if this is just a strategy to end easy cheap 3d printing as gun control, to nip in the bud the 3d second amendment fosscad community. This would be a great way to start hurting the whole industry and make it much harder for people to print guns if the printers are much more expensive and hard to get. New york already makes you fo a background check. Sure this could be my personal conspiracy but then again its not that far fetched for gun control groups to use this to their advantage.

just4memike · August 10, 2024, 4:18pm

The heated chamber patent looks to have been expired before Bambu had its debut. So, I don’t see how that was in question.

This whole thing is a headscratcher. Why hold off on defending a legit patent for years? The more I look into this, the more it seems like a last grasp at the surface by a drowning man. We’ll see, because this one will definitely need some highly paid lawyers to sort out. Expired patents, patents filed after someone else had been credited with an invention, seemingly non-enforcement of patents… this is just a mess.

just4memike · August 10, 2024, 4:20pm

You wouldn’t go to Texas to file that type of suit. That would be the LAST place you’d go to for anti 2A suits.

drakko · August 10, 2024, 4:20pm

wkjames · August 10, 2024, 4:36pm

If I read it right (and I may not be), Stratasys current total stock value is around USD $504m. Bambu probably wouldn’t have a difficult time doing a hostile buyout instead of engaging in a legal battle. At the end they would at least own the additional businesses and patents themselves, rather than having enriched the attorneys of both sides with nothing more to show for it than a paper victory or expensive settlement.

drakko · August 10, 2024, 4:46pm

Let’s not forget that BL is still a startup business, and despite its success with the X1C and the rest of its printer variations, I very much doubt that unless they get external financial support/investment, BL would be able to launch a hostile takeover of Stratasys…And let’s also not forget that Stratasys has its own backers and (most likely) enough clients and banks interested in keeping it alive… (be it just not to allow a Chinese company take over an American one)