I think you really can take ideas from the internet, and be the first to patent it without fear of losing a lawsuit.

Seems interesting how easy an internet posting of an new, novel, etc. idea can be easily dismissed in court. Makes me think you shouldn't share ideas or offer help.

All we have is the patent system (which I'm in favor of) and licencing agreements. Licencing does not protect a device, method, process, ornament/design, etc., you're screwed if you think you have just published an idea on the internet, and think it's now in the public domain, the USPTO patents indicates otherwise. I think the days of help your neighbor, save the world (open soure, open hardware) are gone, (never was), prove me wrong. MercurialMadnessMan offers a solution of how this might be mitigated below.


Zach Hoeken's blog post from a year ago is an ironic example of the open source community's misunderstanding of the patent system
MercurialMadnessMan 5 points 4 days ago

How many of these ideas have been patented since the time he posted this? I'm pretty sure the optical encoder for filament is in the 5th gen Replicator extruder design. Zach is giving away ideas for free in this post, if they were even novel at the time. There are two big misunderstandings here:

1. A blog is insufficient for prior art claims since websites are so easy to edit. I could easily backdate a post to the 80's if I wanted to.

2. Patents are meant to describe in full detail how someone would implement a specific technology. A few sentences is not enough to describe an idea to be patented. There should be diagrams, pictures, full descriptions, etc. If you can't describe an idea in full, or actually implemented the idea, have you really invented it?

I believe there is a need for an online tool that guide's someone through the process of describing their open source invention. Enough detail to count as prior art. And then these descriptions need to be physically printed on paper and mailed to a storage facility. This is a common method of proving that an idea existed on a specific date. This tool could be built as an open source project with the help of patent lawyers, but would likely need to be operated and maintained by an organization such as the EFF.

Electronic Frontier Foundation
[www.eff.org]

In the meantime... transfer your designs from Makerbot's Thingiverse to Ultimaker's YouMagine. It's the closest reputable alternative at this point.
[www.reddit.com]


By PossAbilities:
If every aspect of an internal combustion engine had been patented and defended, there would be only one company making them.
[www.reddit.com]


Articleby Zach Hoeken
First to File? Nah, First to Blog!
[makezine.com]


Zach Hoeken Twitter account:
[twitter.com]

I would like to see a new forum for patents, it would help to organize like topics.

... in my first years in the RepRap-forum my idea was too, to publish novel ideas to 'hold my back free' ... but then I've noticed, that some of the ideas were 'copied' and patented by companies

So I've changed my behaviour for more secretiveness

---

Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

I've had more than a few of my ideas copied, one from of the internet, another copied from our manufacture (over seas) before we released it to the public. I saw a copy of my product (in Boston) at the first trade show of our initial introduction of it, the hounds of hell (lawyers) were put into to full force.

Quote
A2
transfer your designs from Makerbot's Thingiverse[/color] to Ultimaker's YouMagine.

Transferring from one commercial entity to another? Both of them can simply remove your entity as they like.

The only hope here is to get defence support from the other company when one tries to patent something. That said, publishing an idea to many forums and wikis is just as fine. Not all of them can be edited.

---

Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Quote
Traumflug
Tat said, publishing an idea to many forums and wikis is just as fine. Not all of them can be edited.

... this was my idea then (and partially valid until now ) -- but this won't prevent companies from using them for their own IP's

I've found several of my ideas and concepts, only months after posting them, filed for patents! ... and this were not only small companies lurking around here, but some of the 'really big hats' too

---

Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

'Mericaaaaaa!

--- Unhelpful and offensive picture removed ---

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2014 10:37AM by NewPerfection.

---

Realizer- One who realizes dreams by making them a reality either by possibility or by completion. Also creating or renewing hopes of dreams.
"keep in mind, even the best printer can not print with the best filament if the user is the problem." -Ohmarinus

How do I help this along? I'm not the best in law or patents, nor do I want to browse what companies patent all the time, I don't even know how you guys find all of these, but I want to help.

---

Realizer- One who realizes dreams by making them a reality either by possibility or by completion. Also creating or renewing hopes of dreams.
"keep in mind, even the best printer can not print with the best filament if the user is the problem." -Ohmarinus

Some here are trying to create machines to help individuals to help them selves who are near the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. All the while we don't have any legal means of protecting these new ideas. A tertiary level of protection for open source designs is required of ideas, methods, and designs, etc.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs
[en.wikipedia.org]

Quote
hansilein
They (Makerbot) try to patent community-developed features. There are 70 patent files!!!

Makerbot patents
[www.freepatentsonline.com]

Auto-Bed-Leveling, Dual-Extrusion, Color switching, Networked Printing.... and many more
I would create some prior art documents, but I do not know how to do that and furthermore I am afraid that my english is not good enough.
But I would support any kind of action against criminal makerbot activities.
[forums.reprap.org]

Three-dimensional printing of large objects
US 20140074274 A1
[www.google.com]

Engineers have been subdividing large objects for manufacture on small build platforms for some time, and it's not some thing one skilled in the art wouldn't have dreamed up to solve, i.e. it's obvious. Take a look at this Kayak it violates the patent, he simply separated the model into a plurality of sub-objects each smaller than the size of the build volume:

World’s First 3D Printed Kayak
[www.grassrootsengineering.com]

It's posted all over the internet, when an object is too big for your 3d print bed, CNC milling machine, 3d router, etc, it's obvious that you have to chop your part up into chunks that fit your build plate, and reassemble it with glue, hardware, or snap fit, this is not new, and it's trivial.

Makerbot is simply patenting the obvious to monopolize the 3d printer market, it's obvious to me because I think in terms of solving problems on a daily basis in an R&D environment, it's just what any engineer would do. It's obvious you want to fill the build volume with as much as you can, and to break your part up into smaller pieces to reassemble is an obvious and popular solution. Makerbots solution is not even based on statistical or topological tools.

1. A method comprising: providing a first size of a build volume for a three-dimensional printer, the first size including physical dimensions of the build volume; providing an object model having a second size greater than the size of the build volume; separating the object model into a plurality of sub-objects each smaller than the size of the build volume according to one or more criteria; adding assembly features to the plurality of sub-objects to facilitate a joining of each one of the plurality of sub-objects to at least one other one of the plurality of sub-objects; and fabricating a physical instance of each one of the plurality of sub-objects with a three-dimensional printer, thereby providing a plurality of physical sub-objects.

Original Assignee: Makerbot Industries, Llc
[www.google.com]
[www.freepatentsonline.com]

What an idiotic patent. There is a strong possibility that the inventors (if they are employees and not owners) were forced to generate an obvious, and well know technique for generating large objects from a small build envelop.

I'm afraid that the door for web based open source sharing to "help" others in need has been blocked by Makerbot et. al. You're dead and you don't even know it.

Traumflug

I was hoping this site was going to come on line 3Dify.org, but it's only one individual

3Dify.org
[forums.reprap.org]

Quote
MrDoctorDIV
How do I help this along?

Good question, I think we need to review the pending patents, which are issued 18 months after being received by the USPTO, and hire some lawyers to fight the obviousness of Makerbot/Stratasys, et.al claims of novelty. I just wish that the lawyers at the USPTO would take a class on what it means that "one skilled in the art wouldn't dream of solving".

So do we need to get a fund going for the lawyers? Voluntell people in charge of this? Make a whole new thread?

---

Realizer- One who realizes dreams by making them a reality either by possibility or by completion. Also creating or renewing hopes of dreams.
"keep in mind, even the best printer can not print with the best filament if the user is the problem." -Ohmarinus

Quote
A2
In the meantime... transfer your designs from Makerbot's Thingiverse to Ultimaker's YouMagine. It's the closest reputable alternative at this point.
[www.reddit.com]

First thing I'm going to print.

---

Realizer- One who realizes dreams by making them a reality either by possibility or by completion. Also creating or renewing hopes of dreams.
"keep in mind, even the best printer can not print with the best filament if the user is the problem." -Ohmarinus

Great post again A2. I was wondering about how a company could patent a open idea. While I agree patents are a good idea, we(and I mean America) need to revamp a system that allows this type of behaviour. I hate that an peice of intellectual property can basicly be stolen from the owner, and patented just because they can, for what ever reason. I do beleive makerbot/statsys will hinder the advancement of Repraps as people fear losing control of their property.
I say write your representatives and make this issue known to them.

A point I saw made in an article (possibly on Slashdot?) is that patents exist for commercial purposes. If an idea is published for non-commercial purposes then there is no foul if the idea is taken by somebody and called their own - i.e., nobody loses any money if the idea is corralled by somebody. At the time of the article, and presumably now, it had not been tested in court, but the simple existance of prior art in other countries did not preclude a patent being granted and the writer felt that it was likely that prior art absent commercial considerations would also not prevent a patent being granted.

Mike

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2014 12:57PM by leadinglights.

In the US you don't have moral rights (thanks to your movie industry), however, in my country (The Netherlands) you do. And in this respect it's was better arranged over here.

Also, we don't use the word patent but the word 'Octrooi' I'm not sure if there is a US equivalent. But I just want to point out that your view/experience with the patent system in the US is universal and applyable to other countries and parts of the world

There is still hope!

Quote
A2
I believe there is a need for an online tool that guide's someone through the process of describing their open source invention.

There is at least one already: [www.defensivepublications.org]

A long time ago someone posted a link here to a site that was expressly for archiving public ideas with the intention of preventing them from being patented. I think it was a different site than defensivepublications.org (linked above) but I can't find the original post.

But at any rate, there's at least one already. For those too lazy to click, here's an excerpt:

Quote
defensivepublications
Defensive publications, which are endorsed by the USPTO as an IP rights management tool, are documents that provide descriptions and artwork of a product, device or method so that it enters the public domain and becomes prior art. This powerful preemptive disclosure prevents other parties from obtaining a patent on the product, device or method. It enables the original inventor to ensure that they have access to their invention by preventing others from later making patent claims on it. It also means that they do not have to shoulder the cost of patent applications.

The Defensive Publications program, a component of Linux Defenders, enables non-attorneys to use a set of Web-based forms to generate defensive publications. It relies on substantial participation from the open source community as it relates to disclosures. Defensive publication drafts will be reviewed and edited as needed and at no charge by OIN’s attorneys. The completed defensive publication will be added by OIN to the IP.com database, which is in turn used by IP attorneys and the patent and trademark office to search for prior art when examining patent applications.

Tks, great link!

Were you thinking of this website IdeaFons.com, they tried but failed on Kickstarter.

Ideafons.com lets great thinkers get their ideas out of their heads and into the public domain (before someone else patents them).

Ideafons.com will be an online repository for innovative ideas that don’t deserve a patent. By making the ideas freely available online, they can no longer be patented by profit-seeking trolls. The wiki will also facilitate feedback and collaboration by providing a platform to connect people with similar ideas.

Found this in the Defensive Publications website, in their guide: [www.defensivepublications.org]

Linux Defenders uses a well known industry system, IP.com (www.ip.com), for publishing your innovative concepts. IP.com’s prior art database was created to provide a fast, effective, centralized outlet for publishing and searching technical disclosures. Most importantly, it is searched and cited daily by PTO examiners worldwide. IP.com digitally fingerprints and date-stamps your work while placing it into the public domain as a testament to the existence of your work.
[ip.com]

Quote
A2
Were you thinking of this website IdeaFons.com, they tried but failed on Kickstarter.

No... It might have been [www.researchdisclosure.com]

(Just clicking around on Research Disclosure, it looks like they're well established. But they charge $120/page for publishing disclosures.)

Nice find, but that price per page is a deal killer for the average person.

With all this said, please keep in mind that patents matter for those buying instead of making, only. Accordingly, one way to work around patents is to make designs DIY-able. Whatever people build at home is perfectly legal, patented or not.

At least that's the law in Europe. If this isn't the case in the U.S., patenters still have a hard time to hunt down every single device built on a kitchen desk. Not really practicable.

That's actually one of the reasons why the initial idea of RepRap has put so much emphasis on replication. Replication by individuals rules out the whole patenting system. Maybe we should return back to it? Adrian Bowyer and his friends had put quite a bit of thinking into the replication idea and commercial kits were not part of it.

See here [www2.law.ed.ac.uk] , chapter 6 / page 22.

---

Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Quote
Traumflug
Replication by individuals rules out the whole patenting system. Maybe we should return back to it?

Well said and a fine idea. I don't think it will ever happen. Here is my little hypothesis regarding self-replication (previously posted here):

1. A truly self replicating 3D printer would be effectively immune to patent litigation.
2. No company will ever develop a truly self replicating 3D printer because they can't make money selling them.
3. No volunteer or group of volunteers are capable of making a self replicating 3D printer because as soon as a volunteer gets something printing they stop worrying about self replication and start worrying about their Kickstarter campaign.
4. A self replicating 3D printer will never be made.
5. Unless it's made by an art student who thinks it would be funny.

RepRap began as a low-cost motion platform with a gizmo that squirts out hot plastic. After years of intense development, there are now a thousand machines on the market that... are low-cost motion platforms with gizmos that squirt out hot plastic. The fanciest new model simply isn't any damn different from this one. They all do the same damn thing.

I can't think of any instances, from the most "famous" names and founders here, down to the most eager newcomer, where my little hypothesis doesn't hold true. Why just the other day I read a new guy insisting that first rule of his new printer design would be that "absolutely no functional part will be 3D printed". No one here cares about self-replication.

Maybe I should go find a forum where the art students hang out...

Quote
MattMoses
Maybe I should go find a forum where the art students hang out...

Oh so much cynicism from one so young. (O.K., I don't actually know how old you are, but being a gambling man, I bet large gobs of money that you are much younger than me.)

Being occasionally cynical myself, but also a realist, I would have to admit that I don't ever think of kickstarter campaigns or any other kind of business, primarily because I suck at selling things - I couldn't sell gold ingots at a 50% discount on Wall Street. I make things because I enjoy it and if I design something and others copy it then I am delighted - I like but don't require acknowledgement. I also do care about self replication but feel that FFF with PLA and ABS has passed the point of diminishing returns - we now need change direction, perhaps addressing mixed material printing.

The original point of this thread is the misappropriation of ideas from those who freely publish them on this and on other media. Outside of using something like www.researchdisclosure.com and having to pay big bucks for something that you didn't expect to gain from. I think that the best way is to create a trail whenever a novel and useful idea appears - discuss the autoleveling beds, self calibrating printers, magnetic ball ends on Delta printers and all of the other good ones that have appeared sothat there is too much for anybody to claim the the forums had been "edited"

Mike

Quote
MattMoses
Why just the other day I read a new guy insisting that first rule of his new printer design would be that "absolutely no functional part will be 3D printed".

Hey, that's me he's talking about!
Yeah, it's visible in the printing world that people have shifted away from the idea of self replication, printed parts just don't put out the quality and reliability that industrial parts do.
I have thought about making a self-replicating printer, though. As a side project, just for proof of concept. Maybe even to sell those printers printed from industrial quality printers, I know a few people around here who would bite that one.
I've taken a look at printing from older days, and newer printers just have more bells and whistles and at more accessible cost. It's almost like cars. More fancy lights at more accessible gas mileage. It's like the world is slowing it's innovation on older fields of manufacture.

---

Realizer- One who realizes dreams by making them a reality either by possibility or by completion. Also creating or renewing hopes of dreams.
"keep in mind, even the best printer can not print with the best filament if the user is the problem." -Ohmarinus

Quote
Traumflug
With all this said, please keep in mind that patents matter for those buying instead of making, only. Accordingly, one way to work around patents is to make designs DIY-able. Whatever people build at home is perfectly legal, patented or not.

At least that's the law in Europe. If this isn't the case in the U.S., patenters still have a hard time to hunt down every single device built on a kitchen desk. Not really practicable.

Unfortunately in the US the patent can restrict private use as well. As you note that is difficult to enforce but if you are high profile and share your ideas and what you build it's possible they'll see what you're doing but unlikely they'll come after you. It's expensive for someone to file a patent lawsuit and those are typically aimed at either generating revenue via licensing (patent trolls) or shutting down a competing idea or concept.

I don't see the patents having much of an effect on Reprap in general. It's the low end mass produced market that is being targeted. The low end printers are now anything but self replicating, many can't build any of the part of which they consist. As Reprap is currently FDM/FFF based I don't see much happening in that realm that will interest the patent owners to go after DIY types. It's the various Kickstarter projects, UP, Makibox, etc that are likely to be the real targets.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2014 08:08PM by vegasloki.

Quote
MattMoses

• No volunteer or group of volunteers are capable of making a self replicating 3D printer because as soon as a volunteer gets something printing they stop worrying about self replication and start worrying about their Kickstarter campaign.
• A self replicating 3D printer will never be made.
• Unless it's made by an art student who thinks it would be funny.

RepRap began as a low-cost motion platform with a gizmo that squirts out hot plastic. After years of intense development, there are now a thousand machines on the market that... are low-cost motion platforms with gizmos that squirt out hot plastic.

Yes, and that's what the most expensive professional printer do, too.

Quote
MattMoses
I can't think of any instances, from the most "famous" names and founders here, down to the most eager newcomer, where my little hypothesis doesn't hold true.

There are such people. Think of @bobc, who explicitely states he designed, but doesn't want to sell the design. Think of @bryanandaimee, who said similar things. Think of Mr. Lyman, the guy designing the filament extruder. Think of the Tantillus, a design with as many printed parts as possible. Partially even me, I put a whole lot of more efforts into community building and technology development than into selling. Else I wouldn't make a DIY-able electronics and had abandoned Teacup firmware long before.

Quote
MrDoctorDIV

Quote
MattMoses
Why just the other day I read a new guy insisting that first rule of his new printer design would be that "absolutely no functional part will be 3D printed".

Hey, that's me he's talking about!
Yeah, it's visible in the printing world that people have shifted away from the idea of self replication, printed parts just don't put out the quality and reliability that industrial parts do.

You're not alone. In the german section here I read a lot about the pride to design "with as few printed parts as possible". Being an university educated engineer this reads for me like "I'm incapable of designing properly with materials of low strength, so I try to compensate with more expensive materials."

And we see this here, too. Heating cartridges were introduced because people are incapable of glueing a wirewound resistor into a heater block. Commercial slicers are bought because people are incapable of calibrating slic3r. Commercial kits are bought because people are incapable of writing shopping lists.

If you look back at the Original Mendel we have a design which has shown that making a well working printer from printed parts is quite possible. Prusa's first one was even better. Instead of improving this further, people at some point started to work hard on stepping backwards.

What I mostly see is a lack of self esteem. One can be proud of having a replicatable printer. Desingning the 632th fundamentally different frame design is nonsense compared to these incremental improvements on existing designs. And the RepRap project as a whole has shown that the concept of replicating printers works out, else we wouldn't have affordable printers today.

How can we improve this self esteem? How can we cheer more on the guy who made a video on how to glue a heating resistor than on the one coming along with yet another wheel reinvention? How can we focus on science, engineering, detail improvements and collaboration?

---

Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Quote
MattMoses

RepRap began as a low-cost motion platform with a gizmo that squirts out hot plastic. After years of intense development, there are now a thousand machines on the market that... are low-cost motion platforms with gizmos that squirt out hot plastic. The fanciest new model simply isn't any damn different from this one. They all do the same damn thing.

I can't think of any instances, from the most "famous" names and founders here, down to the most eager newcomer, where my little hypothesis doesn't hold true. Why just the other day I read a new guy insisting that first rule of his new printer design would be that "absolutely no functional part will be 3D printed". No one here cares about self-replication.

to be honest and ironic as a hotend producer, i think this whole filament and FFF thing has been done to death and we need to be looking at things like adhesive paste extruders for example a little more seriously as the material possibilities are much higher than what we are doing currently,
there's not a lot of support for ideas like this because a lot of people are already heavily invested in expensive hotends and in some cases some interesting qualities of filament if they aren't selling filament themselves, some even expend energy discouraging the idea altogether.

my latest hell bent project is a retractable paste extruder (refills itself) for printing with not only ceramic pastes but also light glues and various powders in a paste form , so far I've had very little interest in even the idea.(hopefully i'll get to make a start on a wiki page for it by the end of the week)


@Traumflug: heater cartridges i think were brought in mostly because people got sick of resistor leads breaking off and other reliability issues, personally i use them because they are safer as the leads won't break off and don't require high temperature tapes to keep leads and such together.


while i agree the self replication direction has taken a back seat , i think we will see more developments in that direction once we reliably have more materials to play with , currently all we have is polymers one of which is barely conductive. paste extruders offer us a potentially huge range of materials which will make what we previously couldn't do possible , including getting around current printing size limitations and related costs to a degree,

---

-=( blog )=- -=( thingiverse )=- -=( 3Dindustries )=- -=( Aluhotend - mostly metal hotend)=--=( Facebook )=-

70 MakerBot Patents that are so clever that one skilled in the art would never solve. Is it possible that they copied these ideas from the numerous peer-sharing internet chat rooms? Based on the patent law (first to patent) it appears that they can.

My guess is MakerBot/Stratasys lawyers are going to start sending nasty letters out to the mom and pop 3d printer makers.

1 US20140074274 THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING OF LARGE OBJECTS
A variety of techniques are disclosed for visual and functional augmentation of a three-dimensional printer. 1000

2 US20140039662 AUGMENTED THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING
A variety of techniques are disclosed for visual and functional augmentation of a three-dimensional printer. 940

3 US20140042670 PHOTO BOOTH FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL IMAGES
A photo booth is configured with a three-dimensional scanner, a display with a user interface coupled to the photo booth, a network interface configured to couple the photo booth in a communicating... 940

4 US20140129021 AUTOMATED MODEL CUSTOMIZATION
A variety of computer automated tools are disclosed to assist consumers with using three-dimensional printers. Where a user also has access to a three-dimensional scanner, the tools may also... 940

5 US20140036034 THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTER WITH LASER LINE SCANNER
A three-dimensional printer includes a laser line scanner and hardware to rotate the scanner relative to an object on a build platform. In this configuration, three-dimensional surface data can be... 940

6 US20140129020 AUTOMATED MODEL CUSTOMIZATION
A variety of computer automated tools are disclosed to assist consumers with using three-dimensional printers. Where a user also has access to a three-dimensional scanner, the tools may also... 940

7 US20140039663 AUGMENTED THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING
A variety of techniques are disclosed for visual and functional augmentation of a three-dimensional printer. 940

8 US20140034214 BUILD MATERIAL SWITCHING
A three-dimensional printer uses transitional lengths of build material to facilitate changes from one color to another during a fabrication process, and more generally to achieve multi-color... 940

9 US20140035182 AUGMENTED THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING
A variety of techniques are disclosed for visual and functional augmentation of a three-dimensional printer. 940

10 US20130327917 BUILD PLATFORM LEVELING WITH TACTILE FEEDBACK
A three-dimensional printer uses leveling screws with tactile feedback to assist a user in properly orienting a build platform within a working volume. 940

11 US20140039659 FABRICATION OF OBJECTS WITH ENHANCED STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS
A source model describing a modeled object is identified. A preliminary fabrication model is automatically identified from the source model. A structural analysis of the fabrication model is... 940

12 US20140044822 THREE DIMENSIONAL PRINTER WITH REMOVABLE, REPLACEABLE PRINT NOZZLE
A three dimensional printer with a removable, replaceable extrusion nozzle is disclosed. 905

13 US20140070461 COLOR SWITCHING FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING
By reversing the direction of a first build material fed into an extruder, the first build material can be wholly or partially evacuated from the extruder before a second material is introduced.... 905

14 US20140042657 PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD WITH INTEGRATED TEMPERATURE SENSING
An extruder for a three-dimension printer uses a printed circuit board (PC heating element with leads having temperature-sensitive resistance. The resulting circuit can be driven at high power to... 905

15 US20140070445 THREE-DIMENSIONAL SURFACE TEXTURING
An additive three-dimensional fabrication process is improved by controlling deposition rate to obtain surface textures or other surface features below the nominal processing resolution of... 905

16 US20140117575 THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTER WITH FORCE DETECTION
An extruder or other tool head of a three-dimensional printer is instrumented to detect contact force against the extruder, such as by a build platform or an object being fabricated. The tool head... 905

17 US20140121813 THREE-DIMENSIONAL FABRICATION WITH CAVITY FILLING
A three-dimensional printer is configured to fill interior cavities of a fabricated object with functional or aesthetic materials during fabrication. In general, a number of layers can be... 905

18 US20140120196 QUICK-RELEASE EXTRUDER
A bearing that provides contact force to engage a filament with a drive gear has a movable axis that can be controllably moved toward and away from the drive gear in order to engage and disengage... 905

19 US20140129022 AUTOMATED MODEL CUSTOMIZATION
A variety of computer automated tools are disclosed to assist consumers with using three-dimensional printers. Where a user also has access to a three-dimensional scanner, the tools may also... 905

20 US20120113473 NETWORKED THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING
Three-dimensional fabrication resources are improved by adding networking capabilities to three-dimensional printers and providing a variety of tools for networked use of three-dimensional... 904

21 US20120092724 NETWORKED THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING
Three-dimensional fabrication resources are improved by adding networking capabilities to three-dimensional printers and providing a variety of tools for networked use of three-dimensional... 904

22 US20120113457 NETWORKED THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING
Three-dimensional fabrication resources are improved by adding networking capabilities to three-dimensional printers and providing a variety of tools for networked use of three-dimensional... 904

23 US20120105903 NETWORKED THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING
Three-dimensional fabrication resources are improved by adding networking capabilities to three-dimensional printers and providing a variety of tools for networked use of three-dimensional... 904

24 US20130313743 IN-FILLING FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
Iterative techniques are disclosed for in-filling enclosed, interior volumes of three-dimensional shapes during an additive fabrication process. 904

25 US20130009338 THREE-DIMENSIONAL SURFACE TEXTURING
An additive three-dimensional fabrication process is improved by controlling deposition rate to obtain surface textures or other surface features below the nominal processing resolution of... 904

26 US20130297320 VOICE-CONTROLLED THREE-DIMENSIONAL FABRICATION SYSTEM
An additive three-dimensional fabrication system includes voice control for user interaction. This voice-controlled interface can enable a variety of voice-controlled functions and operations,... 862

27 US20120287259 NETWORKED THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTER WITH WEB-BASED VIDEO FEED
Three-dimensional fabrication resources are improved by adding networking capabilities to three-dimensional printers and providing a variety of tools for networked use of three-dimensional... 852

28 US20120287470 WEB-BASED DESIGN TOOLS FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING
Three-dimensional fabrication resources are improved by adding networking capabilities to three-dimensional printers and providing a variety of tools for networked use of three-dimensional... 852

29 US20120286453 NETWORKED THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTER WITH THREE-DIMENSIONAL SCANNER
Three-dimensional fabrication resources are improved by adding networking capabilities to three-dimensional printers and providing a variety of tools for networked use of three-dimensional... 852

30 US20120287459 LOCATION-BASED PRINT AUTHORIZATION FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTERS
Three-dimensional fabrication resources are improved by adding networking capabilities to three-dimensional printers and providing a variety of tools for networked use of three-dimensional... 852

31 US20130073073 AUTOMATED 3D BUILD PROCESSES
A conveyor or other transport mechanism is provided to support multiple, sequential builds from a three-dimensional fabrication machine. The conveyor may be heated/cooled, coated, or otherwise... 852

32 US20120287473 DRAG-AND-DROP INTERFACE FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING QUEUE MANAGEMENT
Three-dimensional fabrication resources are improved by adding networking capabilities to three-dimensional printers and providing a variety of tools for networked use of three-dimensional... 852

33 US20120287472 SOCIAL NETWORKING FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTERS
Three-dimensional fabrication resources are improved by adding networking capabilities to three-dimensional printers and providing a variety of tools for networked use of three-dimensional... 852

34 US20140036035 PRINTER WITH LASER SCANNER AND TOOL-MOUNTED CAMERA
A three-dimensional printer includes a laser line scanner and hardware to rotate the scanner relative to an object on a build platform. In this configuration, three-dimensional surface data can be... 852

35 US20140117585 TAGGED BUILD MATERIAL FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING
A supply of build material such as a spool or cartridge is instrumented with a data tag that includes information about the build material. A three-dimensional printer can read the information from... 833

36 US20140044823 HEATER FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING
A three-dimensional printer extruder includes a thermal core, a heating element, an extrusion tip and an integrated safety system. In this configuration, the safety system is integrated into the... 753

37 US20120059504 AUTOMATED 3D BUILD PROCESSES
A conveyor or other transport mechanism is provided to support multiple, sequential builds from a three-dimensional fabrication machine. The conveyor may be heated/cooled, coated, or otherwise... 753

38 US20120046779 AUTOMATED 3D BUILD PROCESSES
A conveyor or other transport mechanism is provided to support multiple, sequential builds from a three-dimensional fabrication machine. The conveyor may be heated/cooled, coated, or otherwise... 753

39 US20120059503 AUTOMATED 3D BUILD PROCESSES
A conveyor or other transport mechanism is provided to support multiple, sequential builds from a three-dimensional fabrication machine. The conveyor may be heated/cooled, coated, or otherwise... 753

40 US20120189729 MULTI-EXTRUDER
Multiple extrusion drive motors are nested in an overlapping configuration that permits re-use of the drive axes to support drive gears and complementary guide bearings, resulting in a compact... 753

41 US20130095302 GRAYSCALE RENDERING IN 3D PRINTING
An additive three-dimensional fabrication process uses multiple build materials with different optical properties (e.g., color, opacity) at different surface depths to achieve grayscale-rendered... 753

42 US20140046473 AUTOMATED MODEL CUSTOMIZATION
A variety of computer automated tools are disclosed to assist consumers with using three-dimensional printers. Where a user also has access to a three-dimensional scanner, the tools may also... 752

43 US20130329258 DOWNLOADABLE THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODELS
A server is configured to store a number of different models of an object in machine-ready form corresponding to a number of different three-dimensional printers having differing capabilities... 724

44 US20140043630 DISPLAYS FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTERS
A variety of techniques are disclosed for incorporating displays into three-dimensional printers. 724

45 US20130329257 DOWNLOADABLE THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODELS
A server is configured to store a number of different models of an object in machine-ready form corresponding to a number of different three-dimensional printers having differing capabilities... 724

46 US20140043442 MOBILE DEVICE ACCESSORY FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL SCANNING
A variety of techniques are disclosed for enabling three-dimensional scanning with mobile devices. In general, an accessory provides additional optics, image sensors, lighting and/or processing to... 710

47 US20140043441 MOBILE DEVICE ACCESSORY FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL SCANNING
A variety of techniques are disclosed for enabling three-dimensional scanning with mobile devices. In general, an accessory provides additional optics, image sensors, lighting and/or processing to... 710

48 US20130328228 COLOR THREE DIMENSIONAL PRINTING
A variety of techniques for color mixing support a user-controllable palette of colors for use when fabricating three-dimensional objects. 710

49 US20130292881 THERMOCHROMIC BUILD MATERIALS
A variety of thermochromic build materials are disclosed for use in color-controlled three-dimensional printing. By providing materials that exhibit a final color dependent upon heat applied during... 664

50 US20140122579 WEB-BASED METHOD FOR PHYSICAL OBJECT DELIVERY THROUGH USE OF 3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGY
A system allows for the delivery of products through the use of 3D printing technology, enabling a non-technical user to locate, select, and print a product with minimal effort. The system provides... 664

51 D705643 Filament spool 634

52 8529240 Three-dimensional surface texturing
An additive three-dimensional fabrication process is improved by controlling deposition rate to obtain surface textures or other surface features below the nominal processing resolution of... 603

53 D677723 Three-dimensional printer frame 583

54 US20130329243 DOWNLOADABLE THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODELS
A server is configured to store a number of different models of an object in machine-ready form corresponding to a number of different three-dimensional printers having differing capabilities... 568

55 8226395 Automated 3D build processes
A conveyor or other transport mechanism is provided to support multiple, sequential builds from a three-dimensional fabrication machine. The conveyor may be heated/cooled, coated, or otherwise... 533

56 8425218 Networked three-dimensional printing
Three-dimensional fabrication resources are improved by adding networking capabilities to three-dimensional printers and providing a variety of tools for networked use of three-dimensional... 426

57 8287794 Automated 3D build processes
A conveyor or other transport mechanism is provided to support multiple, sequential builds from a three-dimensional fabrication machine. The conveyor may be heated/cooled, coated, or otherwise... 426

58 8414280 Networked three-dimensional printing
Three-dimensional fabrication resources are improved by adding networking capabilities to three-dimensional printers and providing a variety of tools for networked use of three-dimensional... 426

59 8282380 Automated 3D build processes
A conveyor or other transport mechanism is provided to support multiple, sequential builds from a three-dimensional fabrication machine. The conveyor may be heated/cooled, coated, or otherwise... 426

60 8668859 Automated 3D build processes
A conveyor or other transport mechanism is provided to support multiple, sequential builds from a three-dimensional fabrication machine. The conveyor may be heated/cooled, coated, or otherwise... 414

61 8512024 Multi-extruder
Multiple extrusion drive motors are nested in an overlapping configuration that permits re-use of the drive axes to support drive gears and complementary guide bearings, resulting in a compact... 340

62 8562324 Networked three-dimensional printing
Three-dimensional fabrication resources are improved by adding networking capabilities to three-dimensional printers and providing a variety of tools for networked use of three-dimensional... 319

63 8647098 Liquefier assembly for use in extrusion-based additive manufacturing systems
A liquefier assembly for use in an extrusion-based additive manufacturing system, the liquefier assembly comprising a downstream portion having a first average inner cross-sectional area, and an... 75

64 US20120058174 FABRICATION OF INTERCONNECTED MODEL VASCULATURE
Methods of fabricating a substantially interconnected model vasculature, as well as compositions formed from such methods are provided. In some embodiments, the methods may comprise forming a... 65

65 US20140088618 ELASTOMERIC AND DEGRADABLE HIGH-MINERAL CONTENT POLYMER COMPOSITES
The invention provides novel compositions of hydroxyapatite and block co-polymers, methods of their preparation, and uses thereof, wherein the co-polymers have degradable hydrophobic blocks and... 65

66 US20140054067 PRESSURE RECONFIGURED ELECTROMAGNETIC DEVICES
A reconfigurable electromagnetic device includes a first and second planar layer having facing surfaces. One of the surfaces includes one or more micro-trenches. The area between the two surfaces... 52

67 US20130189435 Three-Dimensional Printing System Using Dual Rotation Axes
A 3-D printer system moves a printed tool over a print surface with a mechanism controlling a rotational angle of an arm holding the print tool and a revolutionary angle of axis of rotation of the... 45

68 US20140129393 VIRTUAL PLANOGRAM MANAGEMENT, SYSTEMS, AND METHODS
Systems and methods of constructing and managing virtual planograms are presented. Contemplated systems allow for construction of a virtual planogram, which can be used to present consumers virtual... 30

69 US20140114630 Generating Artifacts based on Genetic and Breeding Simulation
Example systems and methods of generating artifacts based on genetic and breeding simulation are described. In one implementation, a system for producing artifacts includes a mating module that... 30

70 US20140129354 VIRTUAL PLANOGRAM MANAGEMENT, SYSTEMS, AND METHODS
Systems and methods of constructing and managing virtual planograms are presented. Contemplated systems allow for construction of a virtual planogram, which can be used to present consumers virtual... 30

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2014 04:49PM by A2.

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Does the fact that they changed to first-to-file mean prior art doesn't matter anymore?