The Stratasys vs Afinia court clash

Today, all eyes are on Bambu Lab, but 10 years ago, it was Afinia who fought off

On August 8, 2024 — exactly on the 40th anniversary of the official invention of 3D printing — representatives of Stratasys filed two lawsuits in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

These lawsuits concerned the infringement of 10 patents in the field of 3D printing technology. The suits were directed against five Chinese companies, which are reportedly united under a single brand — Bambu Lab.

This event caused a huge stir in the global 3D printing industry!

The sentiment is, that Bambu Lab, a company beloved by everyone for producing super-fast, super-efficient, and relatively inexpensive desktop FDM/FFF 3D printers, became the target of the powerful Stratasys, which, using patents obtained by some cunning, intends to destroy the bastion of manufacturing freedom.

Bambu Lab has become Mr. Robot, and Stratasys has become E Corp. This cannot be questioned.

Source: Nikolay Yudin

Well, there are some who do question it anyway, accusing “Chinese companies” in general of doing the same thing. One such person is, for example, Josef Průša.

But currently, the most popular and appropriate stance is to side with Bambu Lab.

It is well known that every common 3D printing Chinese company by default supports freedom and liberty — both in the area of additive manufacturing and in other areas of life.

Naomi Wu confirms this.

But let’s leave that for the moment…

I would like to tell you about something else. Something that happened 10 years ago and had the same significance as today. Both in market terms and ideologically.

Back then, Stratasys also intended to “murder free 3D printing.” To „crush the 3D printing community worldwide with a heavy corporate boot”.

Similarly to today, its victim was supposed to be a small, likable Chinese company that almost no one remembers today (despite still existing).

10 years ago, Stratasys sued Afinia