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How 3D Printer Maker Aleph Objects Pushes the Open Source Envelope

Posted by timothy on from the catch-us-if-you-can dept.

Lemeowski (3017099) writes "In a time where there's a 'gold rush' for 3D printing patents, there's one company that's doing everything it can to keep its 3D printers as open as possible. Jeff Moe, CEO of Aleph Objects, said in an interview with Opensource.com that his company's strategy is 'to not patent anything, but to establish prior art as soon as we can. So when we develop things we try to push it out there as soon as possible and hope to establish prior art if there isn't prior art already. That allows us to develop a lot more quickly.' The company makes the Lulzbot 3D printers, and goes to the extreme of publishing every last detail about its printers, Moe said, including syncing its internal file system that it uses to share files on the development of the machine to the public every hour so you can see what they're doing."

13 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Wouldn't it be smarter... by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 2, Interesting

    To patent and then just openly license? It would prevent others from trying to sue then if their patents were already established, rather than having to go through the process of fighting off a patent troll and attempting to establish prior art.

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    1. Re:Wouldn't it be smarter... by CastrTroy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Another reason why the patent system is broken. Only large companies can afford to hire a patent attorney and actually be granted a patent. Little guys, who really need the protections, can't get patents anyway.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    2. Re:Wouldn't it be smarter... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I seriously doubt a company that names their product "Lulzbot"has the money to pay staff

      Well it's certainly easier to criticise on the internet than bother to do any actual research. Aleph is apparently hiring right now. Those are real jobs which come with actual salaries. In other words, take your silly, stuffy attitude and shove it. Meanwhile, I'll continue to happily use the excellent LulzBot at the hackspace I'm a member of.

      Meanwhile in the real world, there are plenty of people who don't require products to have "serious" "businessy" names in order to use them. You're probably one of the people who complain about the GIMP as well. I've not met a single person who didn't use it because of the name either.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    3. Re:Wouldn't it be smarter... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They're pretty stupid to not be filing for patents (since they're rolling in the phat cash and all)

      So apparently the two options are "so poor they can't pay staff" and "rolling in the phat cash".

      Let me introduce you to the radical notion that they might have enough cash to pay staff and grow, but only if they don't waste wads of "the phat cash" at a time on patents.

      Prior art is a piss-poor defense against a real patent onslaught (just ask Samsung).

      So is owning patents. Just because you have a patent on part of your machine, doesn't mean someone else might not also have a patent on another part of it. Even if you own patents, you're right back to having to use prior art or a settlement if you're attacked. The point of amassing patents is so you can counter-sue if you're sued. If you're attacked by (a) a patent troll or (b) someone rich, you're fucked either way.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
  2. Quick Aleph! by fabioalcor · · Score: 2

    Please, hurry, do prior art for the following "patents":
    3D printing... ... with computers. ... without computers. ... over the internet. ... with a mobile device. ... with a smartwatch. ... for children. ... for elderly. ... wireless. ... through SMS. ... using XML.
    [insert yours obvious patents here]

  3. More please! by sixoh1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    It certainly helps Aleph that the original FDM patent has expired so at least they aren't under immediate assault. On the other hand it is worrisome that they have to think so hard about the "prior art" aspect - is that really what the open source actions is about? If so I'm skeptical that this is a valid solution since the current regime of patentability (I'm looking at you software patents) means there is plenty of danger for them in the dependent/follow-on patents that Stratasys has filed. Lots of necessary and related improvements to the FFF/FDM process are "obvious" if you are building a machine to be useful for additive manufacturing, but USPTO does not use that approach to determining patentability. The worse bit is that if one takes the time to actually dig into the PTO database looking for other's patents, and trying to "work around" - you might be open to contributory infringement (at least stateside), so most folks actively ignore the PTO database to prevent such skeletons. That means LESS information sharing rather than more...

    On the gripping hand, I'm happy to see Aleph using the lessons of the software world as a viable business model - forget the 3D printer part. All electronics hardware businesses should be able to follow this model if they are willing - the end result for human productivity, creativity and technological advancement seems inevitable. Assuming Patents are somehow overcome as an obstacle (and for example here we can assume that BRICS nations will take up the flags if US based companies like Aleph are strangled by patents), what else stands in the way of getting more hardware companies to act like Aleph?

    My suspicion, having worked in electronics manufacturing for 20+ years is that hardware companies are mostly run by old-line (80s and 90s era) engineers, who cling to privacy, NDAs, trade-secret, etc. by force of habit and comfort. Having spent years coaching my last company about the benefits of open-source (both hardware and software) to naught, I'm betting we won't see more of these kinds of firms until more CEOs die and retire...

    1. Re:More please! by Princeofcups · · Score: 2

      My suspicion, having worked in electronics manufacturing for 20+ years is that hardware companies are mostly run by old-line (80s and 90s era) engineers, who cling to privacy, NDAs, trade-secret, etc. by force of habit and comfort. Having spent years coaching my last company about the benefits of open-source (both hardware and software) to naught, I'm betting we won't see more of these kinds of firms until more CEOs die and retire...

      That sounds like a rather unique company, since most are run by MBAs who have no engineering knowledge and are only interested in the current hot trend to make money in the short term. Or maybe your company isn't in the US?

      --
      The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
  4. 3D printing very old by iggymanz · · Score: 2

    I used to be in CADD/CAM, 3D printing and other means of extruding 3D objects under control of computer is more than two decades old. nothing new with these recent cheap printers other than cheap price, and there are cooler techs that allow you to make objects out of *gasp* real metal! some work with powders as feedstock, others solutions......but the point is this is old, old hat other than now hobbyists on a budget get to play at the very shallow end of the pool (which is fine)

  5. The Basement by Yeb · · Score: 5, Informative

    NotDrWho,

    We are definitely not working in our basement, though we did start in mine 3+ years ago. Gizmag visited our current facility recently. You can check out their tour here:

    http://www.gizmag.com/tour-ale...

    We definitely pay salaries too. In fact, we're set up with a Professional Employers Organization, Insperity. We offer healthcare to 22 employees, along with the other standard benefits.

    We're not (all) kids either. My slashdot account is getting close to 18 years old even. ;) Our staff, advisors, and board of directors includes people with their signature on Mars for components they designed, the former Director of Engineering of Seagate (wrap your mind around the complexity of that for a minute), a major former HP exec responsible for $18 billion/year, the former Director of Finance of Digital Globe (Google Maps), and the chair of the Debian Technical Committee.

    Also, our patent attorney has won billion dollar (with a "B") patent cases. He's no slouch. :) Plus we work with EFF, Harvard Cyberlaw, Public Knowledge, and other groups to push back against patents in 3D printing and patents in general.

    I've spoken about it at length with our US Congressman Jared Polis (he invited me to a patent workshop too) and two of his potential rivals in November. I spoke briefly about it with US Senator Michael Bennet when he visited. So we're working on it at the political layer too.

    Just sayin'...

    -Jeff Moe, Aleph Objects, Inc. CEO

    1. Re:The Basement by g4sy · · Score: 2

      Hey thanks for being cool. My business has recently gotten to the point where I don't have time to make a reprap and probably do have the money to buy a top-end consumer printer but I have refused to give a penny of my money to Bre Pettis.So I'll probably be buying a TAZ 3.0 to start.

      It sounds like you have a cool team and I hope you can keep them reminded that in the long run your vision and goals will pay off much better in the long run compared to pulling a Bre and being a total dick. I'm just so fucking happy that he and Makerbot and Stratysys never got a penny of my money. There are a lot of guys like me in major centres around the world who grew up on linux and gcc and RMS who are becoming cash rich and time poor, especially since there are so fucking few companies to give our money to. I just bought 3 jollas for laughs and giggles and they would certainly have more of my custom if they were actually pushing for open hardware. Neo900 has a lot of my money and they will get more in the coming year.

      So there's a lot of money to be made in open hardware, if you're able to convince your board members and investors etc to continue being patient. The word will get out. You will have the last laugh. Bre Pettis will be an anathema for years to come and Moe will be a name up there with Torvalds, if you keep with the attitude it seems you portray.

      --
      somewhere, on a Big Red Sign:
      if(color==blue){speed--;}
  6. patent then open by Yeb · · Score: 2

    The problem with the "patent now and open later" approach is that it then takes "forever" to get a product to market. If you throw a year or two away just waiting for the patent, you've lost a lot of time. Also, it means the development of the product has to be done in secret, so there is no community development process available. We would rather publish early & often. :)

  7. Re:years by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

    The old guys are from when patents were a sign of true innovation and achievement. The new guys are from an era when the optimal policy for most businesses is to file for everything they possibly can to build up a portfolio, most of which are for obvious trivialities like rounded corners or 'x, on a computer.'

  8. delegation by Yeb · · Score: 2

    Np, I can handle trolls. This thread has been surprisingly lucid, actually. ;)

    Colorado's 2nd Congressional district is represented by Congressman Jared Polis. This district includes Boulder, Fort Collins, and Loveland (where we are). Polis and his family started bluemountain.com and made out with hundreds of millions of dollars during the 1990s dotcom boom. So he's probably the only dotcom millionaire in Congress and probably the only congressman that could set up Apache. ;) He is well informed on patent issues, is actively trying to find a solution to the present conundrum, and is more than happy to listen to the free/libre/open crowd.

    I haven't spoken to the other Congressmen about patents yet, but I will likely speak with Cory Gardner of the 4th district in the next couple months if I get the chance (we'll be at some of the same meetings).

    I spoke to two of Polis' potential election challengers. Neither of them knew particularly much about free/libre/open as far as I could tell, but they both seemed more than happy to learn about it. I will try to get them to visit our facility and give them the full show. They are definitely for reforming the system though--they can see it is broken. My brief argument is that we're stuck with a 19th century system in the 21st century. Plus I hammer home that even if we follow strict patent rules, the rest of the world isn't (e.g. China), so we're just hamstringing American companies by holding back their innovation with patents. That line of argument is a huge winner with politicians, btw...