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3-D Printing: Strategies to Anticipate the Next Disruptive Technology

By Thomas C. Mahlum and Andrew J. Pieper
February 26, 2013

Personal computing, the Internet, social networking: Each of these disruptive technologies created new legal challenges to the prevailing order. And yet, even as businesses ' and the courts ' continue to sort out lingering legal challenges to yesterday's latest disruptions, a new technology exists on the horizon that promises to unsettle the landscape yet again. One could be forgiven for believing that 3-D printing ' essentially the ability to design and “print” three-dimensional objects ' remains either in the scope of far-fetched science fiction, or out of reach for the masses on account of being hopelessly expensive and complicated. Both of those assumptions, however, are wrong.

From the cover of Wired Magazine to the pages of the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, it's clear that the advent of large-scale, consumer 3-D printing is fast approaching, and with it will come a host of complex and uncertain legal issues for businesses as they try to protect their proprietary goods. While traditional intellectual property laws, including patent, copyright, and trademark law, have, for the most part, risen to the occasion in shaping the legal contours of disruptive technologies in the recent past, none of those laws neatly address the business concerns raised by 3-D printing.

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