Dec.7, 2012
Since 3D Systems filed a lawsuit against Formlabs for its Form 1 desktop 3D printer, everyone is wondering how things are going at Formlabs.
Formlabs raised almost $3 million from their Kickstarter campaign but right after the big success, 3D Systems announced that it has brought lawsuit against Formlabs and Kickstarter for infringement of one of its patents relating to the stereolithography process. 3D Systems sued that Formlabs violated claims 1 and 23 of United States Patent No. 5,597,520 "Simultaneous multiple layer curing in stereolithography."
Formlabs declined to comment but wrote a short message on their blog that they were unable to comment publicly on the specifics of the case, but their number one priority was still to fulfill their promise to supporters.
Finally today, Formlabs announced on their blog the progress at their side, that the "high-resolution 3D printing is making its way to your desktop." "We’re excited to report that our engineers are hard at work building ten beta Form 1 printers" (see picture below). In the coming weeks they will use the "Betas" to test and optimize the whole system, including user experience, component durability and print accuracy.
Also, in addition to setting up the production lines, Formlabs is still using Kickstarter funds to grow their team. Their software team has tripled since the launch of Kickstarter. Formlabs is still hiring people for developing their own Form Software, so if you are a Web / Graphic Designer or process engineer you might want to check the job postings here.
Even though the startup still have to deal with the lawsuit, which will likely take many months or years to resolve, according to their blog, they are still on track producing the Form 1 for backers. Even in case that Kickstarter pull the $2.9 million in funding back, Formlabs still has around $3.3 million in venture capitalist funding.
Posted in 3D Printing Companies
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It has, I cancelled my order with 3D Systems when I heard this and instead got a makerbot ;)
Anonymous wrote at 12/10/2012 4:29:12 PM:
Wow - I don't get it. If claims 1 and 23 are what they are being sued for, then it seems like a pretty weak case to me. If they build printers only, and require that a customer provides their own slicing software, then it seems like the lawsuit is targeting the wrong link of the food chain. Seems like a way to use the legal system to slow down innovation. Disgusting! I hope it creates a customer backlash against 3D Systems.
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