Originally published January, 2014
Although the future promise of 3D printing, also referred to as additive manufacturing (AM), has been recently promoted for its promise of reduced costs and production times, as well as an increased complexity of integral components, the legal framework is far from clear. It is useful to analyze the challenges of the current intellectual property (IP) regime, i.e., patents, copyrights, and trademarks, that 3D printing will take place within on the path toward widespread commercialization.