Introduction

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has been on a tremendous rise in the recent past. This is a process whereby three dimensional solid object of any type are digitally manufactured. This is an additive process distinct from traditional machining techniques and subtractive process which is not famous today. 3D printing has enabled essential, efficient and more accurate processes which have encouraged many entrepreneurs to venture into this potential viable opportunity.

As a result of the increased fame in the 3D printing technology, the industry is faced with numerous challenges especially in the intellectual property rights such as copyrights and other design related rights. This can be accelerated by the ability of expressing and re-expressing of the objects in a digital form and more so incorporating shapes from different sources of various origins. In order to prevent such occurrences, it is important to have adequate rules and regulations that will govern the 3D printing technology. Business interests should be accorded utmost protection which may be in the form of the ability to produce free and clear intellectual property liability.

Intellectual property

Intellectual property refers to the rights to exclusively safeguard creations, ideas and artistic work of persons and organizations. Intellectual property is of two broad categories that includes industrial property and copyrights. For business owners and entrepreneurs to safeguard their hard earned ideas and creations from unfavorable competition, they need to understand the basic principles of intellectual property laws. This section will discuss the four major types of intellectual property that aids in safeguarding businesses. For instance, copyrights, trademarks, patents and trade secrets are the four main types of intellectual property.

Copyrights

Basically, copyrights refer to those rights that protect the original work of authors. This may be in form of literature, artistic work, computer application software’s and music. For instance, the copyright holders have exclusive rights to replicate their work, acclimatize as well as allot their creations and ideas at their own pleasure. Registration of author’s original work is voluntary and, therefore, copyrights become effective from the initial creation of the work.

In United States for example, registration of copyrights can be done on the internet. This is done by completing an application form provided on the website and then succumbing $35 non refundable fee. In addition, the application is sent using a non-returnable copy of the author’s original work. The average processing turnaround time for online copyrights registration takes between 10-23 weeks.

As a matter of fact, the lifespan of copyrights lasts for the entire life of the author. Additionally, copyrights are still effective for 70 years from the time of death of the author after which it becomes nonrenewable.

Trademarks

Trademarks specifically refer to a word, symbol, phrase and trademarks that differentiate products or goods from one business from other competing products in the market. For instance, a trademark such as Addidas represents products that are manufactured by Addidas. A trademarks right becomes enforceable by use.

When registering a trade mark, one should conduct a thorough search of his country’s database to ensure that there exists no other trade mark with the same name, phrase or symbol.

Applying for trademarks requires clear identification of the products and services to which the trademark will apply. As copyrights, trademarks can be applied for online by filling in an application form provided and maintaining the distinct numbers of classes of products and services.

Patents

Patents refer to the rights acquired through inventions made. Patent rights allow the holder to restrict other people from utilizing the invention in making, manufacturing or selling products using that invention. Patents are usually of three types namely design, utility and plant. A design patent caters for new but original designs of products. It usually lasts for 14 years. A utility patent on the other hand, caters for improvements made on existing products ranging from processes, article of manufacture to machineries. It usually lasts for 20 years. Lastly, plant patents take care of new varieties of asexually production plant and lasts for 20 years. In the U.S, a patent can be obtained by filling an application with U.S Patent and Trademark Office. Qualifying for patents requires creation of novel inventions with some utility.

Mostly, applying for a patent is quite complicated and costly and, therefore, requires the assistance of an attorney to file inventor’s patents.

Trade secrets

This refers to a process, formula or business information that companies utilizes to gain advantage over their competitors. In most cases this information is kept secret within the organization. Trade secret unlike other types of intellectual property is not registered. Instead, it can last as long as the information is not disclosed to the public. As a matter of fact, businesses use agreements to restrain disclosure of information even after post-employment of people. Examples of trade secrets include; computer algorithms and the formula used to make sodas.

Decision on mix

The decision on the types of intellectual property remains a hard one to determine. This is even more difficult in the 3D printing technology. The technology has been greatly used in manufacturing both personal and pubic goods which has posed great challenges in determining the available intellectual property rights. Manufacturers and right holders must put great consideration in the types of rights at their disposal and decide on the one with great rewards. 3D technology has been widely used in manufacturing of shoes, football cleats, jewelry, fashions, iPhone and furniture. The ability for different people to cheaply, faster and cheaply make an identical replica of any object through 3D printing has necessitated proper identification of intellectual property rights.  This can be achieved through proper understanding of intellectual property laws associated with 3D printing technology.

However, it is important to note that the technology industry is faced with numerous IP related challenges. One of the most notable challenges is the fact that the current IP framework seeks to control traditional manufacturing and supply chains. This poses a great factor to consider while choosing the intellectual property strategy in the technological sector. The presence of disruptive technologies has been a major hindrance in monitoring intellectual property strategy. The current intellectual property laws have struggled immensely to deal with the constants shifts and disruption of the supply chain in the technological industry. Numerous efforts to harmonize the sector have been fruitless due to great lobbying from different quarters in the industry as well as different right holders.

Who owns IP?

Determining right owners in three-dimensional printing technology is a very difficult process. Right owners enjoy protection of their products through patents or copyright from being produced by competitors. In 3D printing technology, a person may have patents that will safeguard their work from competitors.  Holders of patents will be protected from competitor who may wish to distribute or manufacture non authorized 3D printed replicas. Patents in most cases may take the form of patented mouse trap or in any other acceptable form.  However, it is essential to note that the patents are only intended to protect three dimension inventions and not all products. Thus necessitates improvement of intellectual property rights to include other notable consumer goods.

Copyrights have served the larger intention of safeguarding the 3D printing technology. However, previous researches have confirmed that copyrights have also had an equal share of challenges in the countries which have adopted them. This is because they have been able to protect most consumer goods and have terribly failed to safeguard other essential products. For instance, several articles faced with the danger of being scanned and copied through the technology fail to be adequately covered by the copyrights. Design drawing for products may entail a copyright work and creation of digital blueprints may infringe that copyright. These problems have made it very difficult to determine the holders of intellectual property rights. For example, it is important to note that unless one has duly registered a design, it is difficult to prevent anyone else from copying it with the use of a digital blue print. Creation and distribution of digital blue print does not entail infringement of products copyrights.

Another form of intellectual property right ownership entails industrial design protection.  This is a form of intellectual property rights where an owner of novel or articles design protection for his/ her artistic works. However, there is a distinction worth consideration under the industrial design protection. For instance, sale of 3D printed copies of existing novel or articles is an infringement of design rights of the author. Nevertheless, it is paramount to note that reproduction of a protected articles or novels can only be termed as an infringement if it is done for commercial purposes. This implies that duplication by home users does not infringe the rights of the right holders. The existence of different intellectual property laws governing the intellectual property rights have made it very difficult to actually determine the owners of intellectual property rights and to what extent the rights stands.

Three horizon model

Most of the businesses today have adopted three horizon model to advance their businesses. This has even been more serious in technological sectors where innovations are the order of the day. This is an approach whereby the entrepreneur is expected to heavily invest in innovative activities in the course of service and product delivery.  The three horizon defines the current position of the business, its past and where the business intends to be in future. There must also be a good connection with the innovation strategy of the organization to realize its future objectives. Understanding the business enables the organizations to put in place radical measures that will help improve the current position of the industry. The 3D printing technology can also employ this strategy to help achieve a dream intellectual property strategy.

The first horizon help understand the current business position. The second and equally important horizon helps predicts the rising stars of the business that will soon be critical to the survival of the organization. It is this horizon that helps in overall expansion of an organization in terms of competence and market share. The third horizon is concerned with the ideas and opportunities which are prime to the future growth of the sector. However, due to the present unprecedented nature of business, it has been very difficult to fully implement the third horizon. The third horizon involves major innovations which are critical in initiating change to the nature of the industry. The three horizon model can be an ideal model in implementing a viable intellectual property strategy in 3D printing technology. With advanced technology, intellectual property rights can be effectively safeguarded especially in the technological sector.

The tremendous rise in technological advancement has necessitated equivalent advances in technology to monitor and maintain viable intellectual property rights. For instance, improved technology has enabled literature works, film, music, articles and computer programs have been created thus enabling quick and cheap copying of protected work. This is great undoing to the intellectual property strategy in 3D technology. For instance, the presence of high speed broad band enables downloading of protected work within a short period. Thus is a great contravention of intellectual property rights which stipulates that the owner of any artistic production have the discretion to any reproduction process. The intellectual property rights gives the owners the exclusive rights to any reproduction of any 3D printed work regardless of the networks or the gadgets used.

Improvements in innovation in the 3D printing technology can enhance the intellectual property strategy in the sector. For instance, the innovations in the digital sector have brought about major changes in the intellectual property rights. This can be explained by the extended scope of the digital copyrights, responsibility of online providers, rights of performers in the digital sector, protection of databases, peer-to-peer file sharingamong other high-tech infringement techniques to the intellectual property rights. More innovations can also be put in place which will enable protecting of illegal streaming of copyrighted documents. Most states have adopted various legal frameworks with well stipulated framework in intellectual property rights.

Severe technological innovations should be in place to ensure that violators of copyrights and patents are identified and severely dealt with. It has been a tradition in many countries to adopt ISPs as a mode of protecting copyrights online. This has been an instrumental adoption in the fight against copyright violation. For instance, the ISPs has been vital in dealing with illegal downloads of copyrighted videos and music. Under this technology internet users are discouraged to download copyrighted documents. After several warnings from ISPs, the system terminates the services of those users who violate the intellectual property rights.

Competition

Competition occurs as a result of different firms producing similar products for commercial purposes.  Every participant in a competition has a sole motive of making more sales and profit than the rest in the industry.  The level of competition in the three-dimensional printing technology has significantly increased over the years. This has necessitated presence of proper intellectual property rights. The stiff competition has resulted in production of counterfeit 3D products which is great disadvantage to both the consumers and the owners of the intellectual property rights. The most common violation in production of counterfeit goods is the one involving the trade mark.

Production of counterfeit goods occurs when a competitor applies a trademark to goods without the consent of the owner. This has been a common occurrence in the three-dimension printing technology. However I should be noted that it is at times very difficult to ascertain the extent of trademark infringement by competitors. For instance, if a consumer prints a product for personal use and not for commercial purposes, the blue print does not entail infringement of trademark. This can even be more complicated if the consumer creates and makes available a digital blueprint that has a registered trademark for the consumer goods. There is a serious challenge of identifying the mark and whether the good is for commercial purpose or not. Failure to have proper mechanisms of identifying trademark may result to increase of counterfeit goods that are of low quality and greatly infringe the rights owned by the real producers of the products.

The 3D printer manufacturers cannot be liable for the infringement by violators of the copyrights and patents. This is because the manufacturers have no jurisdiction in the use of the machines they produce. This is because the manufacturers are only interested in the sale of the printers regardless of the purpose for which they are purchased. There is also a serious challenge of determining whether there is direct infringement by the users of manufactured printers. The only blame to the manufacturers can only be laid on manufacturers if the printers have no legitimate applications.

Three-dimensional printing technology market

The market of 3D product is currently threatened by the ever increasing levels of competition. It is for this reason that ignoring the threat faced by the market can only be suicidal to the perpetuity of the sector.  The market has been expanding every day as several companies and organizations continue to embrace 3D manufacturing rather than the traditional subtractive manufacturing. The most notable example has been the production of Nokia 3D printed covers. This has also been embraced by other smart phone producers thus making the 3D product market to reach to greater heights.   However, it is worth noting that the models will be less effective with time as the three dimensional printers reach a certain level of sophistication required recreating the complex product itself. Some businesses, however, may fully embrace the technology and include, as part of their business model, authorized blueprints that allow users to replicate authorized copies of their products. Other companies may focus more on the value of the brand and the services provided alongside the original product, encouraging consumers to appreciate the cache and manufacturer support that goes with owning an original rather than a three-dimension printed facsimile. It is for this reason that proper understanding of the actual market becomes essential in planning for an intellectual property strategy in three dimension printing technology. This will greatly help in understanding how infringement occurs, who causes infringements and what types of products or markets that is prone to infringement.

Preserving and protection of intellectual property rights is very essential in the three dimension printing technology. This is more important as it safeguards the interests of both the producers and consumers of the patented product. This may involve ensuring that all the stakeholders are aware of existence of the property rights in a timely manner. However, it is important to note that some intellectual property rights are often interwoven within different production lines. This is a very serious concern since it can be a base for serious legal confrontations. Ownership and control of intellectual property should be strictly defined to avoid unnecessary conflicts.

Other essential considerations should also be put in great considerations such as cost and the best type of intellectual property rights for different products. All participants in the three dimension printing technology must be aware of legal and other implementation costs of the IPRs. Different intellectual property rights such as copy rights, patents, trademarks just to name but a few should be carefully considered to ensure that the best is determined. It is also important for major governments to put in place rules and regulations that will ensure that intellectual property rights are safeguarded.  For instance, special levy can be introduced to compensate victims of copyright violation in the three dimension printing technology. The public awareness is also important to ensure that the public is very aware of the existent of such rights thus reducing the violation of such rights.

 

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