Zhuhai CTC Electronic Charges Print-Rite with Patent Infringement

Zhuhai CTC Electronic Co., Ltd. (CTC), China’s leading manufacturer of 3D printers and consumables, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Print-Rite, a world famous provider of both 2D and 3D printing consumables, before the Zhuhai Intermediate Court. Reportedly, this is the first patent case on 3D printers in China.

According to China’s leading IT website ZOL, the district court has ruled that Print-Rite infringed two of CTC’s 3D patents: ZL201330341637.3 and ZL201320463657.2. Also, the defendant is stipulated to compensate RMB160,000 for CTC’s loss and stop manufacturing and selling the said products immediately.

As was revealed, CTC originally requested a compensation of RMB 400,000 ($64,398 USD), but now the compensation amount decided by the court is less than half of this. CTC’s executive director Tiffany Yang claimed, “We will request Print-Rite to compensate more for our loss.”

Print-Rite’s patent attorney sent Recycling Times a statement today. In the statement, the company asserted that the decision by the district court is not the final decision, and they will appeal to the Higher People’s Court of Guangdong Province. Meanwhile, they have applied to invalidate CTC’s related patents. At the end of the statement, the company noted that it respects the intellectual property of others and invests hugely in innovation and technology. So far, Print-Rite has applied for 78 patents for its 3D printers, according to the statement.

John Hornick, 3D printing patent attorney and a partner at the intellectual property (IP) law firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP, commented on the patent issue in 3D printing, “To date, there has not been much litigation over IP rights in the 3D printing space. The reason is that although the major players compete for sales of 3D printers in general, the processes used by their machines, and their applications, are mostly different so they may not compete directly. In my lectures and articles, I have predicted eventual 3D printing patent wars that rival the smart phone patent wars.”

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