http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/07/despite-patent-lawsuit-formlabs-3d-printer-company-amps-up-beta-unit-production-and-looks-to-hire/
This article discusses the lawsuit against Formlabs for infringing on 3D System Corp.'s patent. This article speaks to a greater issue to crowd source funding and the transparency of patent filings. Crowd sourcing is great as a validation for one's idea and essential capital to start a company but circumvents many of the established IP protection procedures most company's tend to follow. You can fund an idea on kickstarter without ever consulting with a lawyer or accountant. I think this speaks an even greater issue of patent transparency. The interface and accessibility of patent filings, while available online, is not easily understandable in layman's terms. Not to mention the interface is atrocious. With the trend towards user-centric design, it is interesting to see the lag in one of the most important elements of content creation and innovation.
Well said Eric. It seems like legal procedures have always been a black box for common folk, hence the appeal of being an attorney (high demand for legal advice!) However, it's awesome to see things like legalzoom.com come to fruition. Just goes to show how the user-centric design can really disrupt the legal game.
ReplyDeleteI love crowd sourcing because it's such an easy way to get into the mindset of the user. It gives great info regarding consumer preferences and it helps you build your product at the same time. I'm currently using it to build my mobile app and it's definitely way easier than gathering a bunch of data on my own.
ReplyDeleteeric, could you also go into your blogger settings to disable the capcha thing every time I want to post a comment? It sucks. :c Make it easier for people to comment :3
This is a really interesting article! I am fascinated with 3D printers. It'd be fun but also scary being in such a frontier segment of technology. I still doubt whether 3D printers will every really be big or instead be more of a fad. The article brings up a lot of great legal questions having to do with crowdsourcing. Unlike 3D printers, I'm not all that fascinated with Crowdsourcing. I've never really been interested in it. Partly due to the many legal questions.
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