US company 3D Systems is suing crowd-funding platform Kickstarter and MIT startup Formlabs over the technology used in a popular 3D printer.
The Form 1 printer is a real Kickstarter success story. The campaign by Formlabs raised $2,945,885, 30 times more money than was necessary to finish the project. Form 1 can create higher quality objects than its competitors, such as the popular MakerBot, but costs a lot less than professional equipment.
This is the first time Kickstarter has been sued over a project on the website.
Stereolithography is a 3D printing technique that involves a vat of liquid photopolymer “resin” and an ultraviolet laser to build objects from digital models, layer by layer. Exposure to the ultraviolet laser light cures and solidifies the pattern traced on the resin and joins it to the layer below.
Formlabs opted for stereolitography when creating Form 1 because it delivered professional results without breaking the bank. A comparable system can cost tens of thousands of dollars, but Form 1 would be available to anyone who pledged over $2,299 to the campaign.
The startup required $100,000 (£62,700) to complete the project, but received $1.4 million (£0.88m) in pre-orders in under a week. Currently, the total amount pledged to Form 1 stands at almost $3 million (£1.88m).
3D Systems told the BBC it was “well known” in the industry as the owner of a significant portfolio of stereolithography-related patents. The company has defended its intellectual property in the past, and accused Formlabs of ignoring the obvious legal implications of its project.
The Federal District Court filing also highlighted the threat that cheaper Form 1 poses to the sales of the equipment made by 3D Systems. The company holds Kickstarter equally responsible, because it took five percent of the pledges and promoted the allegedly infringing product.
Formlabs staff have told the media on more than one occasion that their printer relied on several patents which were expired, which meant the team didn’t have to pay expensive licensing fees and could offer Form 1 at a reasonable price.
“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 in the court filing.
Formlabs is still taking pre-orders for its printer.
Kickstarter launched in the US in April 2009 and claims that during its existence, more than $350 million (£218m) has been pledged by more than 2.5 million people, funding more than 30,000 projects. The platform officially launched in the UK last month, with pledges being taken from 31 October.
TechWeekEurope previously reported on Pebble, a watch that can display smartphone notifications, run apps and browse the Internet, which had become the most funded project in the history of Kickstarter, raising more than $9 million (£5.6m).
Are you a patent expert? Take our quiz!
AI push sees Alphabet's Google saying it will consolidate its AI teams in its Research…
Beijing orders Apple to pull Meta's WhatsApp and Threads from its Chinese App Store over…
Key milestone sees Intel Foundry assemble ASML's new “High NA EUV” lithography tool, to begin…
Oracle's huge AI, Cloud investment in Japan will meet growing local demand and address digital…
People who create sexually explicit ‘deepfakes’ of adults will face prosecution under a new law…
Protest at cloud contract with Israel results in staff firings, in addition to layoffs of…
View Comments
I noticed that you've written about Kickstarter campaigns, and I know this article is a bit old, but I just thought that you might be interested in ours.
We've launched our very own crowdfunding campaign for our company, Protos Eyewear, to crowdfund custom fit eyewear made via 3D printing.
It's unfortunate, but Kickstarter no longer allows eyewear, so we have to work extra hard to get the word out. And if it's okay, we would love to get your help and support in any way, shape or form. If you would like to write about our project, then please do check us out at protoseyewear.com
We would be forever grateful if you can share our project with your readers, friends, or whoever you think would be interested.
If you have any inquiries or concerns regarding our campaign, please feel free to contact me and I'll certainly get back to you as soon as I can.