Intellectual Property Rights and Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Recent developments in Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology show that it is beginning to become mainstream. Intellectual property (IP) law, the area of law that aims to protect and promote technological and artistic developments, clearly plays a central role in the promotion and support of the development of this important technological field. At the same time, the specific characteristics of AM, especially the digital element that it naturally embodies (the ‘digitalisation of objects’) poses multiple challenges to the way we traditionally conceive and interpret IP doctrines. This trend highlights the pressing need for different stakeholders (e.g. industry and businesses, legal practitioners and experts and educators, students and researchers) to gain a better understanding of what the social impact of AM will be from the viewpoint of IP law. With a focus on European copyright, trademark and patent law, this chapter sheds light on some of the major challenges, as well as possible solutions, for the IP system stemming from the developments of AM technology.