{"id":23650,"date":"2016-02-09T14:55:07","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T14:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/?p=23650"},"modified":"2017-04-17T12:09:17","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T16:09:17","slug":"asking-for-clear-rules-on-copyright-and-3d-printed-objects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/asking-for-clear-rules-on-copyright-and-3d-printed-objects","title":{"rendered":"Asking for Clear Rules on Copyright and 3D Printed Objects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday\u00a0Shapeways joined with Formlabs<\/a> and Matter and Form<\/a> to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to bring some clarity to the rules that govern copyright and 3D printed objects (among many other things).\u00a0 In a brief<\/a> prepared by Sydney Lakin and Bill Koch at Stanford Law School’s Juelsgaard IP and Innovation Clinic<\/a>, we urged the Court to settle on a single test for determining which parts of some 3D printed models can be protected by copyright.<\/p>\n

The case is the same one I blogged about last year<\/a> regarding cheerleader uniforms.\u00a0 The real issue at stake \u2013 which is larger than either cheerleader uniforms or 3D printing \u2013 is how copyright law should handle objects that mix copyrightable and non-copyrightable elements.<\/p>\n

Briefly, purely decorative and non-functional objects (like StuffBySteve\u2019s snowflake ornament<\/a>) are eligible for copyright protection.\u00a0 Purely functional objects (like leegreen\u2019s No. 50 Tripod Clip<\/a>) are not eligible for copyright protection.<\/p>\n

\"Gijs<\/p>\n

The question arises when a 3D printed object incorporates both decorative and functional elements (like Gijs\u2019 birdsnest eggcup<\/a>\u00a0above). If you extend copyright to the entire thing, you are using copyright to protect functional objects (that\u2019s bad).\u00a0 If you exclude it from copyright entirely, you are taking protection away from decorative elements that may be eligible for it (also bad).<\/p>\n

The theoretical way to deal with this conflict is to try and separate out the functional and non-functional elements and only grant copyright protection to the non-functional ones.\u00a0 In practice, we currently have 10 different tests to govern the separating.\u00a0 As you might expect, these 10 different tests floating around make it hard to know exactly what is protected by copyright and what is not.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, this sort of \u201ctoo many conflicting tests trying to answer a legal question\u201d is exactly the type of situation where the Supreme Court is designed to shine.\u00a0 This case gives them the opportunity to settle on a single, nationwide test for how to think about mixed functional and non-functional objects.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s precisely what we are asking them to do with this brief.\u00a0 At this stage, we are not even advocating for one test over the other. While some tests are better than others, we feel that the most important thing is to have a single test that everyone can rely on.<\/p>\n

What happens next?\u00a0 This is the stage in the process where parties are asking the Supreme Court to take a look at their case.\u00a0 Many more cases ask for review than are ever reviewed, and the Supreme Court is mostly free to pick and choose to hear whichever cases it wants to.\u00a0 If the Supreme Court decides to hear the case there will be an opportunity to weigh on the substantive questions presented by it (as opposed to just weighing in that the Supreme Court should take the case).\u00a0 That is followed by oral argument and, eventually, a decision.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s obviously a lot of steps between now and a final resolution. Regardless of what happens, we\u2019ll keep you up to date.\u00a0 If you have any questions, don\u2019t be shy about jumping into the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday\u00a0Shapeways joined with Formlabs and Matter and Form to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to bring some clarity to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":23705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[489],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-products-and-design"],"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Star-Athletica-Cover-Image.png","yoast_head":"\nAsking for Clear Rules on Copyright and 3D Printed Objects - Shapeways Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yesterday\u00a0Shapeways joined with Formlabs and Matter and Form to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to bring some clarity to the rules that govern copyright and 3D\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/asking-for-clear-rules-on-copyright-and-3d-printed-objects\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Weinberg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/asking-for-clear-rules-on-copyright-and-3d-printed-objects#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/asking-for-clear-rules-on-copyright-and-3d-printed-objects\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Weinberg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9e9a6a0945ba18a78ec44fcb66169360\"},\"headline\":\"Asking for Clear Rules on Copyright and 3D Printed Objects\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-09T14:55:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-17T16:09:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/asking-for-clear-rules-on-copyright-and-3d-printed-objects\"},\"wordCount\":525,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/asking-for-clear-rules-on-copyright-and-3d-printed-objects#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Star-Athletica-Cover-Image.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Products and Design\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/asking-for-clear-rules-on-copyright-and-3d-printed-objects#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/asking-for-clear-rules-on-copyright-and-3d-printed-objects\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/asking-for-clear-rules-on-copyright-and-3d-printed-objects\",\"name\":\"Asking for Clear Rules on Copyright and 3D Printed Objects - 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