Legal pitfalls when 3D printing fashion and accessories

The fascinating technology of 3D printing has already been a major talking point for some time. However, press reports over the last few months show that the technology is playing an increasingly important role in everyday life and, at least in certain areas, is slowly but surely becoming the norm. This trend can also be observed in the fashion industry. Designers such as Alexander McQueen and Iris van Herpen have already used 3D printing for their haute couture creations. Louis Vuitton even had complete pop-up stores created using 3D printing. The 90-square-metre structures were printed within 18 days. Nevertheless, such uses still tend to be quite exotic.

Meanwhile, in other fields 3D printing has practically established itself: Adidas is increasingly relying on 3D printing technology and uses it intensively to manufacture sports shoes. The sports goods manufacturer Peak released its first pair of 3D printed running shoes, “Future I”, in China this May. Under Armour also manufactures and sells 3D-printed sports shoes. But the technology can be used not only to produce running shoes and other sports goods. Glasses made using 3D printers are also on the rise in Germany. Framelapp, for example, measures the exact form of a customer’s nose and other facial features using a head scanner and enters this data into a 3D printer. In this way, the glasses can be designed based on the customers’ wishes and at the same time be customised to exactly fit their faces.

But it is not only manufacturing companies whose interest in 3D printing technology continues to be great. Dutch company 3DNinja has now launched the most comprehensive search engine to date for 3D-printable models. Its search engine “IFind3D” already contains around 750,000 designs and allows end-users to find 3D-printable models quickly and easily.

However, the ever-evolving technology, and above all its rising popularity, are bringing new legal challenges. Consumers can scan products on their mobile phone using an app and then reproduce them using a 3D printer. Ready-made design files which can be sent to any 3D printer can be easily found, especially using tools such as the IFind3D search engine. Consumers are often not particularly interested in who has the rights to the product designs. Yet copies of products can infringe rights even if they are just for private use. Such reproductions are all the more likely to infringe rights if users use them for commercial purposes, i.e. intend to sell them – even if they “only” want to do so on platforms such as Etsy or eBay.

But it is not only consumers who are able to make copies of products using 3D printing who are at risk of infringing legal rights. Companies who create fashion products or accessories by printing them in 3D to suit their customers’ wishes can also infringe the rights of a third party if a customer gives them a design on which third-party rights already exist. Yet it is not only trade marks, designs or copyrights that come into question as older third-party rights: re-creating an existing product can also constitute anti-competitive practice. In view of this, it is advisable for companies to take a close look at whether the products customers want them to produce using a 3D printer conflict with third-party rights.

This article was also published at fashionunited.de under the link.