3D Printers vs. Patents
We know about 3D printing. It is in its primitive phase.
Think about this technology 30 years from now. Of course, your guess will look silly in retrospect -- primitive.
People invent things. They apply for patents. Governments issue them. They grant a monopoly of manufacture for about 15 years. The inventor can license his invention and collect royalty payments.
Patent law works because it is enforceable. A manufacturer has a facility. It is in a location. If it produces goods based on designs that belong to someone else, the owner of the counterfeiting operation can be fined or sued by the owner.
What happens when the tools used to manufacture items are owned by individuals? They don't sell what they produce. They use it. There is no trail of money to trace buyers to a single manufacturer.
How does an inventor sue 10,000 manufacturers?
He has a schematic. That is the basis of his patent. The schematic is available to the public. It just cannot legally be used.
So, someone with a web server in a tiny nation obtains a domain name in that nation. The United Nations is now in charge. This person can post a schematic online. Google can find it.
What happens when the schematic is a digital code that can be used to produce the item on a 3D printer anywhere on earth?
Maybe the inventor can hire lawyers to get the schematic removed from a server in an island nation. But at what price? Maybe it gets removed from the server. How long will it take for someone in another nation to post the same schematic?
This will be digital whack-a-mole.
For mass produced goods in factories, patents may be enforceable at some price. But 3D printers will do an end run around factories. They will allow customized versions of items that today can only be produced by factories. This is understood in theory today, but it has not yet shaped patent law. There is not a sufficient economic threat to factories from 3D printing. In 30 years, this will no longer be the case.
Think ahead 50 years. Think ahead 90 years.
Patent law is like copyright law. It is limited. It rests on the physical production of goods in specific locations. Specific locations are in specific legal jurisdictions. It also rests on retail sales in specific locations. Neither limitation will be the case with widespread 3D printing.
The enforcement of intellectual property rests on today's array of prices. It is expensive to become a counterfeiter. You must have specialized skills. You must have detailed knowledge of markets. You must be a skilled person in concealment. None of this will be true in 30 years.
Here is the fundamental economic law: "When the price falls, more is demanded." When the price of becoming a legally immune counterfeiter falls, there will be lots more counterfeiters.
Patent law will become increasingly unenforceable as 3D printing develops. Economic theory will have to adjust to these new conditions.
The modern world of mass production began with the expiration of James Watt's patents on his steam engine design. Before expiration, steam technology did not spread far and wide. It did after the patents expired. We are going to see something comparable when 3D printing becomes so commonplace that middle class households have several printers.