Could Patent Trolls steal your 3D Design?

[steved1]

I am not an attorney but have some practical general practical experience in this field. A design patent is called different things in different Countries. It is basically a commercial thing meaning you are trying to protect a product that you are making money from. It is basically protects you from being copied and someone else passing of there product as yours, but this patent is "aesthetic" and not an "inventive" patent. The aesthetic patent can be overcome with a few tweaks by someone to make it theres (just reality) If you come up with something you wish to commercialize, then that is a cost benefit analysis decision for you. As for you whether you wish to protect it or not that can be a long arduous, expensive and often unfruitful, futile exercise. If you have no or limited commercial interest and you simply want to have the work attributed to you (if it is yours) Then put it "out there" in competitions, posts (like on this site)" Twitter, Facebook Etc you are documenting your intellectual ownership, with an evidenced priority date. If all that fails, try to accept "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" Or put a copyright mark date and name somewhere in or on your 3D work. Or, keep it very private all up to you.

Cheers

[awerby]

Recently, the US patent office went from a "first to invent" to a "first to file" system, so it no longer helps to prove you had the idea before someone else filed for the patent. This was already standard in most other countries. It makes things simpler for the patent office, but it's another nail in the coffin of the individual inventor.

Filing a patent is a complex and expensive process, and if you want to protect your idea in multiple countries, the complications and costs just multiply. And once you've filed, you have to keep paying large fees every year to keep your patent from being invalidated. Should it come to a court challenge, it's pretty much a trial by ordeal; the entity with the biggest pockets and the most staying power wins. So unless you've invented "Mr. Fusion" or something equally earthshaking, it's not really going to be worth filing for a patent, and if you have, you'll need to line up some major financial firepower to protect it.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[richardphat]

I happen to be a victim when I was desiging ship model for a game. The guy at the end took all the credit. What can I expect when it's on the internet?
What I learnt is stop putting big project on the net or shared with some individual from the other continent. You'll lose much more time and money trying to prove yourself you're right....

[3dprintingpartner]

I fear that the 3d printing designs and models rights will unfortunately stay breached and cracked at least until the common average use of this technology will be widespread, as we all know it can take at least few years so most of the burden is indeed upon the designer.