[Discuss] patents around 3D printing

[Matt Maier]

What do you guys think about stuff like this?
http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,201914,201954

It seems that Mr. Pettis is trying to patent the idea of a socially
networked 3D print server.

On the one hand, I'm like, if it's a novel idea then sure, go get a patent
and license your heart out. On the other hand, I feel like everything in
the patent is blindingly obvious to anyone even remotely familiar with the
subject, which means they shouldn't be able to get a patent on it. The rule
is that it has to be non-obvious, not just that nobody has done it yet.

I mean, there's nothing new about a drag-n-drop interface, or a print
server, or sending "internet of things" updates to websites, and combining
all of them with respect to 3D printers is already under discussion. But,
you know, nobody's actually done it yet.

So should the open source community let this kind of thing go, or should
the community try to watch out for and stop this kind of thing?

-Matt
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