3D printing (or, more correctly, additive manufacturing) is the general term for those software-driven technologies that create physical objects by successive layering of materials. Due to recent advances in the quality of objects produced and to lower processing costs, the increasing dispersion and availability of these technologies have major implications not only for manufacturers and distributors but also for users and consumers, raising unprecedented challenges for intellectual property protection and enforcement. This is the first and only book to discuss 3D printing technology from a multidisciplinary perspective that encompasses law, economics, engineering, technology, and policy. Originating in a collaborative study spearheaded by the Hanken School of Economics, the Aalto University and the University of Helsinki in Finland and engaging an international consortium of legal, design and production engineering experts, with substantial contributions from industrial partners, the book fully exposes and examines the fundamental questions related to the nexus of intellectual property law, emerging technologies, 3D printing, business innovation, and policy issues. Twenty-five legal, technical, and business experts contribute sixteen peer-reviewed chapters, each focusing on a specific area, that collectively evaluate the tensions created by 3D printing technology in the context of the global economy. The topics covered include: • current and future business models for 3D printing applications; • intellectual property rights in 3D printing; • essential patents and technical standards in additive manufacturing; • patent and bioprinting; • private use and 3D printing; • copyright licences on the user-generated content (UGC) in 3D printing; • copyright implications of 3D scanning; and • non-traditional trademark infringement in the 3D printing context. Specific industrial applications – including aeronautics, automotive industries, construction equipment, toy and jewellery making, medical devices, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine – are all touched upon in the course of analyses. In a legal context, the central focus is on the technology’s implications for US and European intellectual property law, anchored in a comparison of relevant laws and cases in several legal systems. This work is a matchless resource for patent, copyright, and trademark attorneys and other corporate counsel, innovation economists, industrial designers and engineers, and academics and policymakers concerned with this complex topic.

Focuses on the novel issues raised for IP law by 3D printing for the major IP systems around the world.

This ground-breaking and timely contribution is the first and most comprehensive edited collection to address the implications for Intellectual Property (IP) law in the context of 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing. Providing a coverage of IP law in three main jurisdictions including the UK, USA and Australia. 3D Printing and Beyond brings together a team of distinguished IP experts and is an indispensable starting point for researchers with an interest in IP, emerging technologies and 3D printing.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing – or “additive manufacturing” – technologies differ from traditional molding and casting manufacturing processes in that they build 3D objects by successively creating layers of material on top of each other. Rooted in manufacturing research of the 1980s, 3D printing has evolved into a broad set of technologies that could fundamentally alter production processes in a wide set of technology areas. This report investigates, from the perspective of an intellectual property scholar, how 3D printing technology has developed over the last few decades, how intellectual property rights have shaped this breakthrough innovation and how 3D printing technologies could challenge the intellectual property rights system in the future.

Written by leading experts from across the world, this Handbook expertly places intellectual property issues in technology transfer into their historical and political context whilst also exploring and framing the development of these intersecting domains for innovative universities in the present and the future.

A New Industrial Future? examines whether a further industrial revolution is taking place around the world. In this compelling book Birtchnell and Urry examine such a new possible future involving the mass adoption of 3D printing. The locating of 3D printers in homes, offices, stores and workshops would disrupt existing systems and pose novel challenges for incumbents. The book drawing upon expert interviews, scenario workshops and various case studies assesses the potential future of global manufacturing, freight transport, world trade and land use. It offers the first book-length social scientific analysis of the character and impacts of a new system of manufacturing that is in formation. The book will be of interest to urban planners, policy makers, social scientists, futurologists, economists, as well as general readers by offering inquiry on this future upheaval in the means of production.