What it takes to prove you designed a basic whiteboard holder

MakerWorld
1

Back in August, I uploaded my first model here: a rack that holds five lap whiteboards upright, with a caddy for markers and erasers. Made it for an elementary school classroom. Free, no license, nothing clever.

Within hours, a user commented that they were the original creator, that this was my cease-and-desist, and that they were filling out the DMCA right now. No link to their version. No publication date. No similar model anywhere on their profile. Just vibes.

The model was down the same day.

The paperwork speedrun

Here’s the fun part. Filing that complaint took about two seconds and required zero evidence. Getting the model back required, from me:

  • A formal counter-notification under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3), sworn under penalty of perjury
  • My legal name, home address, and phone number, forwarded directly to the person accusing me
  • Consent to federal court jurisdiction, because that’s a normal thing to do about a marker holder…
  • Filesystem metadata and SHA-256 checksums for every file in the project
  • Diffs between all five saved revisions of the source
  • Renders of each revision, generated from its own unmodified file
  • Proof that the published mesh regenerates from my OpenSCAD source exactly - same 5,520 triangles, same geometry hash
  • A 19-page technical appendix
  • And then, after all that, a video

Four weeks, start to finish. For two dollars of filament.

About that video…

After reviewing the technical package, I was asked for a time-lapse showing my entire creative process from start to finish.

I don’t have one. I designed this on a Sunday afternoon without recording my screen, because I am a person who was making a whiteboard rack, not a person anticipating litigation. I’d wager that covers roughly everyone reading this.

Which is the problem. That requirement can only be met by people who decided in advance that they’d need to defend themselves.

It also grades the wrong homework. A convincing video of someone modeling an object is genuinely easy to fake once you have the object. Parametric source code that regenerates a published mesh triangle-for-triangle is not, because deriving that source from a mesh isn’t a thing you can do. They treated the unfakeable evidence as insufficient. The fakeable evidence was mandatory.

The actual point

Most of what gets posted here is free. Someone designs a bracket, a bin, a holder, and puts it up because somebody else might want one. That only works if posting is low-friction. If an unverified accusation can pull your model the same day, and clearing it costs a month of evenings plus your home address handed to your accuser, the sane move for a casual designer is to stop posting.

Three things that would help, none of which require changing safe harbor law:

  1. Make complainants name the work. A URL. A date. Something. I went three rounds and was never told what I supposedly copied.
  2. Scale the burden to the stakes. A free, unlicensed STL shouldn’t face the same documentary standard as a paid design.
  3. Let technical provenance close the case. Source that regenerates the mesh exactly should be enough. It’s better evidence than video, and a copier can’t produce it.

Model’s back up, still free. I do like it here - the swap to Bambu was a good one. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I guess that’s why I’m posting this instead of leaving.

4

I just boosted you twice (the maximum per model) as, I am glad you persisted and I am sorry this happened to you.

5

There seems to be a lazy admin theme developing here. I have been a maker for about 10 years, most of that has been on a Prusa of various sorts, so most of my models are on printables. I now have a H2D. The first model I re-ran on the H2 and placed on M’World has been rejected as not my model and not my pics. Proof of both submitted and rejected, without explanation or come back. As it stands I may well be a taker not a contributor on here, which doesn’t sit well with me. How do you get through to the all mighty admins and bring them back to reality?

6

Not contributing is just as valid as contributing. In the end, there are really only two choices: join in and play the game - or don’t.

For me personally, this mindset works best: post it and forget about it. Just do your thing.

I say this as someone who has already lost thousands of points because of rule changes. I could get annoyed about it, or I can just keep doing what I’ve always done: post it and forget it.

I posted it mainly for others, not to earn points. Take the points you can get, but don’t chase after points you’ve lost.

7

Thanks for the balance and pragmatism. ‘Just do you’ is an entirely valid and relevant piece of advice. I am showing my naïvety with regard MW. Didn’t realise there were points up for grabs, or indeed what you can do with them. Presumably similar to Printables system? My frustration is that a numb-skull in a position of authority can tell me that my own property isn’t mine. I hate rewarding incompetence.

9

That user sells a similar product on their site. I won’t link, but didn’t take long to find. Their prices explain their dramatic reaction to any whiteboard holder at all existing.

One of 5000+ generic classroom items.

10

I did a bit of a dive into their stuff yesterday as well.

It seems they are very misinformed on how IP rights work - to the point where they’re going after anyone who makes anything even similar to what they have.

This person also has sought and claims to have obtianed at least one patent that 100000% should not have been granted as it fails the obviousness test.

From their social media posting, it looks like they’re regularly going after people who they perceive to have infringed on their IP - so it’s likely a lot of others have had similar takedowns.

I don’t even know how best to approach this - they are clearly misinformed, and a patent lawyer has certainly scammed them, but at the end of the day they are abusing the IP takedown system.

@MakerWorld how do we handle this? A user is reporting every model that resembles theirs as stolen designs, when they clearly are not, and unfortunately you’re taking down models that clearly are not the same as this person’s design.

11

The response will vary dramatically on which country this user operates in, I imagine.

accusations are easy to make, and as long as the knee-jerk reaction from those in power is to punish the accused first, there are always going to be those who game the system.

There needs to be some level of inconvenience associated with actually submitting an accusation. Where that level of inconvenience ends up being is still TBD.

13

Eventually she is going to pick the wrong person, someone with a cousin/brother/spouse lawyer, and she’ll get sued back for filing a false claim. I’m guessing paying the opposing atty fees would a significant burden for her.

People have warned about it before in this forum, if you file a claim against a seller on Temu or Amazon or Etsy incorrectly claiming “that’s my model” they can sue you right back for all of the lost sales until they get the item restored and their atty fees.

14

U.S. law is 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), which was more or less designed for the situation where someone weaponizes the DMCA notice system.

A person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing can be liable for:

  • damages caused by the false notice
  • costs
  • attorneys’ fees <----------------

Get your lawyer involved if they want a free meal
But its probably a child on the other end and you wont see a cent lol

15

It definitely isn’t a child. They have a very large online presence.

16

Well then even better

You have provable gains from makerworlds points scrip system, that were damaged

Nothin’ like a countersuit for $4.00 damages, $200.00 cost labor to prove it, plus $10,000.00 attorneys fees. This is the relief valve the law gives you against this kind of litigant. Noones getting rich except the lawyers but you’ll alter their behavior pretty quickly.

17

I’ve also deleted my original comments, as I feel they’re no longer relevant now that the full context has come to light. Anyone who’s curious can easily search the name, so I’ll simply leave it at that. This person does have quite an extensive online presence.

It turns out that this was the missing piece of the puzzle, and it also helps put a number of things into context - including why the DMCA takedown notice was submitted, where the alleged original model is located, and, more generally, awell as what went wrong during the entire handling of the case.

Bambu probably had to react. I don’t want to go into too much detail; anyone can look up the name. The complaint was probably filed in a kind of bulletproof way, to get the DMCA through in the first place and force Bambu to respond - in the sense that to force a company to take actions, not in the sense that it is legally bulletproof. Basically counting on the fact that very few people will object.

This person has definitely played the game quite a few times and knows how it works.

18

I’m coming late to the party, so I hope I won’t misspeak.

First, as my wife (an attorney) often says, anyone can claim anything they want and file any lawsuit they want. What’s to stop some nefarious individual from claiming a design is theirs?

IMO, I do not think Bambu Lab should be responsible for rulings in these cases - that should be made by an independent body with the gaggle of copyright attorneys needed to assess the claims. I also do not believe Bambu Lab (or any other company in a similar position) should be pulling a design simply over a claim being made - they should wait until there is a ruling by that independent body. If the ruling comes down in favor of the claimant, then Bambu Lab can pull the offending design and it would be up to the claimant to pursue further legal action for any damages.

Disclaimer: I’m not an attorney nor do I play one online… :blush:

19

This is ridiculous! A claimant should be required to provide the exact information to you in their complaint disclosing there personal information the same as the require from you address phone number and a listing showing they posted their model first.

Otherwise it’s just trolls wanting to FK with people and the current rules and procedures favor them not you.

It’s all BS and an afront to common sense!

I will go boost your model now as well

21

Im not for doxing or anything, but if you look at the comments of the linked model you might find what you are looking for.

22

I need to start by pointing out one thing before clarifying my argument in detail:

Bambu already have all of the relevant information from the complainant - name, address, the 3D model, and a patent. Whether that patent is actually valid is highly questionable.

For reference, this is what the complaint form requires: the complainant must upload a patent or other IP documentation that proves they are the legitimate rights holder. This is where most trolls fall short.

Screenshot 2026-09-20 182728
Screenshot 2026-09-20 1827282677×1685 219 KB

My point is this:

  • It’s not actually that easy for someone to troll the system. They have to provide at least one valid document. The person OP is referring to has presumably submitted a valid document.

Of course, as this situation shows, things can still go wrong… valid document does not necessarily mean that the claim was justified. That’s exactly what happened here - what OP described.

By the way, this information isn’t posted here in the forum to avoid brigading. However, the information is, in fact, more or less public.

23

I’d be willing to bet any amount of money that that lady doesn’t have a patent on a dry race caddy and I bet if she even had a dry erase caddy she’s probably copied it from somebody else looking at her maker world profile with her five models posted I don’t see anything incredible a pattern of both are amazing

24

You have to visit the official store, not MakerWorld. There it says that everything is patented - whether that’s true, well…

25

Yeah, what I’m saying is people that say I have a Pat on this or a Pat on that it’s a very difficult lengthy and expensive to get patterns on items and most of the stuff already. Pat did anyway people aren’t coming up with new items to Pat and especially some little thing like that.