Bambu Lab has a sticky situation on its hands, as this ruling only covers US patents, and thus machines sold in the United States. In Europe, the company successfully defended its use of the technology held under similar European patents. This means an X1-Carbon in New York would violate a Stratasys prime tower patent, but the same machine in Germany would not.
In April of this year, the European Unified Patent Court (UPC) The Hague Local Division dismissed Stratasys’ preliminary injunction application against Bambu Lab. The court rejected Stratasys’ attempts to broaden its claims, and Stratasys did not appeal.
The Texas judgement handed down Friday is part of a larger multi-patent dispute. Bambu Lab successfully invalidated patents US 9592660 covering the use of heated build surfaces and flexible spring steel plates. Bambu Lab argued that this is not one singular invention but a combination of designs that were later patented by Stratasys after it acquired Arevo, Inc. These designs were revealed in prior art, making them fair game.
It was also able to defend its use of networked, cloud-connected 3D printing with remote camera monitoring, covered by US 8562324.
Four more patents are still awaiting judgement in Texas. These cover RFID tags on material, remote networking, LiDAR scanning and automatic printer detection. Notably, the LiDAR has only been used on the now defunct X1 Carbon.
Stratasys filed two civil lawsuits in 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against Bambu Lab for the alleged infringement of ten different U.S. patents regarding 3D printers. Stratasys was founded in Eden Prairie, MN, and has its North American headquarters there. Bambu Lab, a Chinese company, maintains offices in Austin, TX, which is in the Western Texas District Court. The Eastern District has a reputation for being friendly to patent holders, with U.S. District Judge Alan Albright at one point hearing over 25% of the nation’s patent cases .
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Denise Bertacchi Social Links Navigation Freelance Reviewer Denise Bertacchi is a Contributing Writer for Tom’s Hardware US, covering 3D printing. Denise has been crafting with PCs since she discovered Print Shop had clip art on her Apple IIe. She loves reviewing 3D printers because she can mix all her passions: printing, photography, and writing.
RobMilliken So we didn't even get to use 3d printing tech until a particular patent expired? But people are still being sued? Are patents really for or against innovation? How did the consumer benefit while waiting? Seems like an example of patent sitting. Reply
Darkhands RobMilliken said: So we didn't even get to use 3d printing tech until a particular patent expired? But people are still being sued? Are patents really for or against innovation? How did the consumer benefit while waiting? Seems like an example of patent sitting. Stratasys has been squatting on 3d printing patents forever, milking money out of them since the beginning of things. You'll notice that heated chambers suddenly came out on a million different models at once a few years ago… That's because the patent for the idea expired. I'm not losing any sleep over Bambu taking a financial hit, but this is a reminder that Stratasys is still out there preying on 3d printing companies and sucking money out of them whenever they can. The sooner all the patents expire, the better. Reply
Norahpocalypse and the rich get richer. Reply
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