Patents and legal issue with 3DP and SLS about pwdr-model-0.1 HOT 6 OPEN

As the Pwdr machine is only a (non-commercial) design for a powder based 3D printer, it's not limited by any patent, as long as there is no commercial activity. The machine is aimed for research purposes.

And as a home builder, there is no concern at all. Drop a line here if you have any other question.

On Tuesday, January 8, 2013 at 15:53 , Kirais wrote:

Is Pwdr going to have any legal issue with the 3DP and SLS patents?
I found the patent of 3DP on Google Patent. There are many versions of it. This may be earliest one http://www.google.com/patents/US5204055?dq=three-dimensional+printing+techniques&ei=8SfsUNOFJMf_rAf_yoHAAg&cl=en
with filing date of Dec 8, 1989. The lastest one may be this: http://www.google.com/patents/US5340656?dq=three-dimensional+printing+techniques&ei=8SfsUNOFJMf_rAf_yoHAAg&cl=en with filing date of Apr 9, 1993.
I am not very familiar with intellectual property laws. Which one should be used to for expiration date calculation? If we refer to the former one, the patent is already expired, but the latter is still valid for another three months.
In addition, Zcorp also has many patents related to 3DP after the original MIT patent. https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=pts&hl=en&q=inassignee:%22Z+Corporation%22 I am not sure whether those patents cover what we are doing in this project.
Hope my concerns are not issues. I am really excited about this project, and planning build one myself.

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub (#9).

from pwdr-model-0.1.

I see. I really don't know anything about patents. Does that mean patents don't cover any non-commercial activity? That's great!

from pwdr-model-0.1.

The big question is, how old are the patents? When do they expire?

On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 9:08 AM, Kirais [email protected] wrote:

I see. I really don't know anything about patents. Does that mean patents
don't cover any non-commercial activity? That's great!

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/9#issuecomment-12000546.

./Andrew

from pwdr-model-0.1.

The patents for lithography expires 2014.

Andrew Falgout [email protected] wrote:

The big question is, how old are the patents? When do they expire?

On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 9:08 AM, Kirais [email protected]
wrote:

I see. I really don't know anything about patents. Does that mean
patents
don't cover any non-commercial activity? That's great!

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on
GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/9#issuecomment-12000546.

./Andrew

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
#9 (comment)

from pwdr-model-0.1.

The patent for 3DP is going to expire in the coming April, referring to this http://www.google.com/patents/US5340656?dq=three-dimensional+printing+techniques&ei=8SfsUNOFJMf_rAf_yoHAAg&cl=en.

I found a good posts regarding 3d printing patents, check it out!

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/join-effs-efforts-keep-3d-printing-open

from pwdr-model-0.1.

A good news. The patent for 3DP expired on 2010. http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5204055.html

from pwdr-model-0.1.