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Last Thursday industrial 3D printer manufacturer, Stratasys, filed two lawsuits against desktop 3D printer manufacturer, Bambu Lab, claiming the latter infringed upon a total of ten US patents. The patents refer to technologies that appear widely implemented in the 3D printing market, meaning a ruling could have widespread implications in the industry.

PDFs of the filings hosted by RPX Corporation, a patent risk management service provider, have been widely shared that detail case numbers 2:24-cv-00644 and 2:24-cv-00645. The cases have been filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Marshall Division with a demand for trial by jury. In the lawsuits, Stratasys says that it notified Bambu Lab of its belief the company had infringed its patent on August 5.

The patents Stratsys claims Bambu Lab have infringed upon are as follows:

NO. 2:24-cv-00644

No. 9,421,713 – Additive Manufacturing Method For Printing Three-Dimensional Parts With Purge Towers
No. 9,592,660 – Heated Build Platform And System For Three-Dimensional Printing Methods
No. 7,555,357 – Method For Building Three-Dimensional Objects With Extrusion-Based Layer Deposition Systems
No. 9,168,698 – Three-Dimensional Printer With Force Detection
No. 10,556,381 – Three-Dimensional Printer With Force Detection

NO. 2:24-vs-00645

No. 10,569,466 – Tagged Build Material For Three-Dimensional Printing
No. 11,167,464 – Tagged Build Material For Three-Dimensional Printing
No. 8,747,097 – Networked Three-Dimensional Printer With Three-Dimensional Scanner
No. 11,886,774 – Detection And Use Of Printer Configuration Information
No. 8,562,324 – Networked Three-Dimensional Printing

The community has been abuzz with commentary over the filing this past weekend, with many bemoaning more patent infringement lawsuits from the industry’s old guard and speculating on the existance of prior art (information known publicly before a patent’s filing) that may invalidate or give priority to other entities over Stratasys’ filing. The cited patents are a small part of Stratasys’ total “approximately 2,600 patents and pending patents internationally”.

Technologies ostensibly violating Stratasys’ cited patents have been used by many major third-party 3D printer manufacturer for years now. Prusa Research stands out as a notable third-party entity that could be affected by the case’s outcome for its own use of purge towers with its multi-material units (MMUs), polymer-coated removable print sheets, and other technologies that may fall under Statasys’ patented technology descriptions. But it’s far from the only entity whose products the cited patent descriptions could cover.

This isn’t the first time Stratasys has filed patent violation claims that appear remarkably broad. Back in 2013, Stratasys claimed Microboards Technology LLC, manufacturers of the Afinia 3D printer, had infringed upon four of its patents; one of which referred to infill settings and others the 3D printing process more generally such as “methods for controlling the solidification of extruded materials in layers”. The accused countersued, claiming Stratasys’ patents were “invalid for failure to comply with the statutory provisions for patentability”. Stratasys was eventually ordered to dismiss the case, Make Magazine reported.

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