Shenzhen big seller sued by peer boss! May face permanent ban

Recently, the incident in which Shenzhen-based Bambu Lab was sued for patent infringement by global 3D printing giant Stratasys has attracted widespread attention in the industry.

Bambu Lab was sued by a big player in the same industry

It is understood that Stratasys announced that it has filed patent infringement lawsuits against six Chinese 3D printing companies in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District.

The defendants include: Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology Co., Ltd. and its three subsidiaries ( Bambulab Limited, a Hong Kong company under Tuozhu, Tuozhu Technology Limited, a Hong Kong company under Tuozhu, and Shanghai Contour Technology Co., Ltd.), as well as Beijing Tiertime Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing Yinhua Laser Rapid Prototyping and Mold Technology Co., Ltd.

In the lawsuit, Stratasys mentioned that these companies used many of its patented technologies without authorization, seriously infringing Stratasys' intellectual property rights.

Among them, according to the lawsuit against Bambu Lab, five patents were mainly suspected of infringement, namely: U.S. Patent Nos. 9421713, 9592660, 7555357, 9168698, and 10556381, involving 3D additive printing technology using a cleaning tower, a building base in a method of additive manufacturing with high-temperature thermoplastic materials, a method for generating a build path for a three-dimensional object based on an extrusion-based layer stacking system, a method for detecting contact force between an extruder or other tool head and an independent structure in a 3D printer, and a 3D printer with an extruder or other tool head.

It should be noted that the scope of the patents that Stratasys sued Bambu Lab for alleged infringement is very broad, almost covering the more mainstream 3D printing technologies on the market, which means that many companies using these technologies may become potential targets of Stratasys' lawsuit.

Stratasys not only accused Bambu Lab of infringing its patents, but also accused Bambu Lab of having its servers in China and having security vulnerabilities.

According to the lawsuit, Stratasys requested the court to make the following ruling: requiring the defendant to compensate the company for the losses caused by patent infringement and to double the compensation according to the regulations. At the same time, the plaintiff also requested the court to issue a permanent injunction against the defendant and its respective company executives, agents, employees, etc., prohibiting them from infringing these patents and prohibiting them from inducing others or third parties to infringe these patents. In addition, the plaintiff also requested the court to order the defendant to pay the plaintiff's attorney fees and other appropriate expenses and compensation.

Who is Stratasys, the company that sued Bambu Lab?

Stratasys can be said to be a strong and established leading 3D printing company. Since 1988, Stratasys has entered the 3D printing industry, mainly providing innovative 3D printing solutions for industries such as aerospace, automotive, consumer products and healthcare. It has a large market share among all companies in the 3D printing industry.

As early as October 1994, Stratasys successfully IPOed on NASDAQ.

Currently, Stratasys owns approximately 2,600 global patents.

Since 2011, Stratasys has used its previously accumulated capital to complete a number of acquisitions to expand its business.

Initially, Stratasys' acquisitions were mainly focused on the polymer field. In 2021, Stratasys officially acquired Xaar 3D, Origin and RPS, adding three polymer technologies after the acquisition.

In 2022, Stratasys acquired Covestro's AM business unit, expanding its polymer material portfolio.

In addition, Stratasys is also accelerating its layout in the consumer market through acquisitions. It previously acquired MakerBot and merged MakerBot with Ultimaker in May 2023.

Despite this, Stratasys still faces market challenges, and the company has been in the red since the beginning of 2020.

In 2023, Stratasys' revenue was $626 million and its net loss reached $123 million. In the first quarter of 2024, Stratasys lost more than $20 million. Capital budget constraints continue to affect customers' purchase of new systems.

Stratasys, which is at a disadvantage in the market, began to turn its attention to other peers.

It is worth noting that as early as 2013, Stratasys had filed a patent lawsuit against a Chinese company. The company that sued at that time, TierTimes, is also suspected to be one of the defendants this time.

Why did the global 3D printing giant Stratasys sue Bambu Lab?

As a new company in the 3D printer industry, Bambu Lab has seen rapid development in recent years.

Bambu Lab was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, China. It is committed to revolutionizing the desktop 3D printing industry with cutting-edge robotics technology. The company has established R&D centers in Shenzhen and Shanghai, and an office in Austin, USA. It took Bambu Lab only three years to become the leader in the category.

In November 2022, Bambu Lab's X1 series 3D printer won the TIME Magazine's Best Invention of 2022.

(Image source: Bambu Lab official website)

According to the 2023 "3D Printer Brand Influence Report" released by domestic media , Chinese brands alone occupy 4 seats in the top 5 cross-border e-commerce 3D printer brand influence list, with Bambu Lab ranking third.

It is worth mentioning that Tuozhu Technology was co-founded by a group of 3D printer enthusiasts with deep R&D backgrounds. The initial founders mainly came from the core business backbones of DJI, Alibaba, ByteDance, and Marvell. The team has top experts in mechanical/mechanical design, motion control, machine vision, artificial intelligence, computational mechanics, embedded software, cloud computing and other fields.

Since its inception, the company has had a global gene, bringing together partners from all over the world, with users in more than 60 countries and regions around the world.

Industry insiders said that Tuozhu Technology's monthly sales revenue currently exceeds 100 million yuan. According to data from EqualOcean, Bambu Lab's revenue is expected to reach 1.5 billion yuan in 2023.

The rapid expansion of Bambu Lab's business has also made Stratasys feel the market threat. In recent years, China's 3D industry has entered a period of rapid development. In the first half of 2024, China's total exports of 3D printing equipment reached 1.829 million units, an increase of 40.29% over the same period last year. In addition to Bambu Lab, there are also many 3D printing companies emerging in the overseas market.

It is not an easy task to resolve the patent infringement lawsuit filed by Stratasys against six Chinese 3D printing companies. This is because a similar incident has happened before. A US 3D printing company sued a Chinese 3D printing company for infringement, and the Chinese 3D printing company was eventually ordered to pay tens of millions of yuan in compensation and completely withdraw from the US market. If these Chinese 3D printing companies lose the lawsuit, the subsequent impact will be very large. Stratasys may continue to file lawsuits against other companies using similar technologies, which will directly affect the sales of these companies' products in North America. If Tuozhu wins against Stratasys, the 3D printing industry will also be reshuffled.

How Tuozhu Technology will respond to Stratasys’ lawsuit, Ennet will continue to pay attention.

This lawsuit also serves as a warning to Chinese companies that they must attach great importance to intellectual property protection when going overseas , and maintain their technological competitive advantages and product market share.

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