Why is open source hardware not working for 3D printers?

Dale Dougherty, founder of Make:, writes about the difficulty of continuing to produce designs under open source hardware licenses for 3D printing.

Is China using the patent system to gain total control of 3D printing? 

At FAB25 Conference in Prague this week, which was held less than a mile from the headquarters of Prusa Research, Josef Průša said in his keynote that China’s aggressive pursuit of 3D printing patents since 2020 was a “minefield” that was killing open source hardware in 3D printing. He wrote in more detail on his blog, saying that “Open hardware in 3D printing is dead – you just don’t know it yet.”

Průša pointed out there are very few 3D printer manufacturers with viable businesses outside of China. Průša Research is an exception. Ten years ago, nearly every country had its own 3D printing company.

Dougherty also discusses Arduino and the differences in Open Hardware vs. Open Source Software.

A good read! Catch it here.

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