IP: Thinking Ahead about 3D Printing

As with other disruptive technologies, the breakthroughs 3D printing offer will end up challenging existing laws and governance systems. Together, practitioners, legal scholars, and policymakers will have to find out what current laws and rules work for 3D printing — and those that don’t. Legal scholars at the frontlines of 3D printing have already begun to wrestle with the complex legal questions the technology raises. Inspired by the successes (and failures) of earlier efforts to deal with other significant technological advances, these legal scholars have started to propose new regulatory, rights management, and rights interpretation solutions to address the 3D printing challenges they anticipate. For corporate counsel with intellectual property assets at stake in the 3D printing revolution, these articles matter because they may become an important resource to judges and lawmakers looking for guidance on how to mesh existing precedent with 3D printing realities

Reprinted with permission from InsideCounsel.