Tech Talk/By Martha Knight

Regular TechTalkies know that I wax enthusiastic about 3D printing advances, and covet a 3D printer of my very own.

The drawbacks that have been more or less obvious to me have been prices, until competition is sufficient to bring them down, and the cost of consumables.

That was true of laser printers, until there were many makers, and of toner until the third party refillers and suppliers of compatibles got going.

What I did not think about was the effect 3D printing would have on IP.

Intellectual property. Trademarks. Patents. How will trademarks be enforced, as it becomes easier and more practical to scan objects and create duplicates of them?

At a recent 3D printing conference in New York, an attorney, John Horlicks, predicted that the first industry to feel the effects of 3D printing on its IP will be the toy industry.

Already there are peer-to-peer sites such as Pirate Bay where CAD files holding specs for popular toys can be downloaded.

Alternatively, scanning capabilities in motion sensors such as Microsoft Kinect can be used for scanning an object, creating a CAD file from it and printing it out with a 3D printer. The object thus created will not just look like the original—it will work like it.

It is unlikely that toy makers, tool makers and durable goods makers of many kinds will simply resign themselves to the automation of knock-off exploits. Remember Napster?

Way back in 1999, that audacious company started up and signed up many easer users who began sharing .mp3 files with glee and abandon and with everyone else they knew. But artists and recorded music companies did not just sit there twanging on their jaw harps. They took Napster to court, hollering “infringement” and “damages” at amplitude that threatened to panic Napsterites’ tympanics right through their earbuds. Napster ceased and desisted from facilitating trax-napping.

Some things will be fair game for duplicating, for fun and profit, or at least for kicks. At Disney’s Hollywood Studios visitors may have themselves scanned, for a fee, so that their likenesses may be morphed with some movie character, such as Pocahontas or Tarzan. It isn’t quite equal to cloning. (Don’t be so sure this 3D thing won’t be able to print DNA, eventually, though.)

RapidScan3D claims that its technology can produce software replicas of all sorts of objects.

Most 3D printers are not capable of printing objects as large as a person, but could create busts (that is, head-and-neck-and-clavicle-area likenesses). But, perhaps a 3D likeness could be sculpted section by section, 3D style, and assembled? Think of the plots Poe could have plotted with a 3D plotter!

No doubt legislation will be proposed, to protect the creators and owners of IP, and also the makers and users of the brave new technology.

How will this technology impact the tool and die industry? Pressed metal? Machine shops? Manufacturing in general? Printed-out objects don’t match all specifications of the originals, so far, at least not where the originals are made of different material. Appearance isn’t everything. But the technology is advancing even as we speak.

3D printing is likely to cut costs enough that some of the manufacturing that has gone overseas will come back. Wouldn’t it be nice to think that there might actually be microwave ovens and cameras and (insert your own list here) made in the United States?

But then, would this change to 3D turn into another wave of automation, with 3D printers turning out whatever items CAD files describe, with little human intervention at most stages?

What if people start owning enough fabrication technology for home use that they do not buy goods so much as the files or designs needed to produce them?

What will the effect be on manufacturing processes, distribution and retailing of goods? How will transportation be affected? If I can obtain something be receiving its CAD file as an email attachment and printing it here, it won’t have to be shipped. That will save energy and cut down on the lag between desire and satisfaction.

Will IP licenses become more like goods? As it is, 3D printing involves copyright or patent or license ownership of several kinds, including of the CAD files to the software that makes them to the printer to the consumables.

We haven’t got into the liability angles, so far, but we may be sure the legal profession will be all over it faster than we can say “tortfeasor.” If you buy a CAD file and use it to print a product that turns out to be faulty and causes property damage or personal injury, who is responsible in the legal sense?

Much to think about, as the 3D printing revolution gains momentum. But I still want a 3D printer.