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by bioweek 6001 days ago
FDM patents? Explain more please.
1 comments

There's a bunch. http://www.google.com/patents?q=fused%20deposition%20modelin...

They cover many different parts of the process, support materials, anything you can think of.

So they expire soon? Could we use the patents as specs to build an open source one when they come of age?

Wait a minute, isn't this what cupcake CNC uses? Why haven't reprap been sued?

Yep, they could probably be sued under this. Here's the reason why they haven't: they're targeting totally different markets. "Real" engineers would never use a Cupcake CNC to make test parts, as the resolution is so low. So they're not really a threat to their business.