Our Guide to Intellectual Property in 3D Printing

Intellectual Property is a controversial and sometimes confusing issue. The moniker covers such a broad spectrum, that it requires years of experience to master. This is bad for designers who want to create 3D-printed models and share them for both fun and profit. We have therefore researched potential issues for designers, consumers, and professionals to help you better understand your rights. In addition, check out our Top 5 3D printing university degrees.

Intro

There are many platforms dedicated to hosting 3D model files to download and print. These range from free only sites like Thingiverse, to sites that charge for models like Shapeways. There are also sites that print yours or other peoples’ models for you, like 3DHubs and Freelabster. This opens the door to a variety of problems. Firstly, people may take your design and sell it, whilst leaving it completely unchanged. Secondly, people could potentially take your designs, change them very slightly, and then claim them as their own. We examine these problems in more detail.

Firstly, we must explain Creative Commons. Creative Commons are a variety of licenses that protect artists and authors. They tell us what we are allowed to do with the piece of work concerned – in our case a 3D model. There are two main licenses: ones that allow commercial use of the piece or don’t, and licenses that either allow users to modify work or not. There are a total of 6 licenses based on these two categories.