Re: Patent position of current 'Concept Modellers'

From: George Sachs (sachs@pipeline.com)
Date: Sun Mar 09 1997 - 03:36:20 EET


About the best source of information in one place is, once again, Marshall
Burn's book "Automated Fabrication" which gives a complete background on all
the major technologies (at the time of writing) and also includes some
patent numbers. I may be able to provide you with additional information if
this is not sufficient. BPM's technology for instance is based soley on the
patent aquired (not stolen!) from William Masters (#4,665,492) and was
proudly displayed in their booth at Autofact last November. By they way,
they are not too happy about 3D's recent offering (Actua?). 3D claims that
it is based on different technology however and I believe they either have
their own patent or are trying to get one. Practically everyone in this
field is playing fast and loose with patent right interpretation however.
Never the less the foreign players have been successfully kept out of the
American market so far, so the patents do provide some commercial and
advertising benefits. My impression is that most of the basic technologies
have been covered (at least as regards layered manufacture) and that most
new advances will involve improvements to these basic methods and maybe the
introduction of some radical departure from these approaches sometime down
the road.

Regards,
George Sachs
Paradyme Systems

>A quick question?
>
>Does anyone know of the current patent position of the new 'concept
>modellers' i.e. Actua 2100, Genisys, BPM, etc.?? I suppose I really want to
>know what technology is patented by each company ?
>
>My resaon for asking is to try to get a handle on the what scope there will
>be in the future for new entrants in this new market segment? Will new
>entrants have to have to have some different method for producing models
>other than the extrusion offered by Stratasys, the ink-jet offered by 3D
>Systems, BPM and Sanders? And finally if all three of the ink-jet
>technologies are patented, in what ways are they regarded (in the patent) as
>being different?
>
>Chris.
>**************************************************
>*** Christopher Jelley ***
>**************************************************
>*** Applied Mathematics and Computing Group ***
>*** Cranfield University, UK ***
>**************************************************
>*** Tel : 01865 862639 ***
>**************************************************
>*** " If we want things to stay as they are, ***
>*** things will have to change." ***
>*** Giuseppe di Lampedusa.(1896-1957) ***
>**************************************************
>
>
>



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