Yesterday Ocean Tomo CEO James E. Malackowski participated on a panel at the 3D Printing Politics conference in Washington, DC. An event where Peter Harter, a lobbyist with deep experience in intellectual property spanning Netscape, EMusic and Intellectual Ventures, assembled a remarkable group of senior business and government thought leaders in the 3D printing industry including:
- Vikrum Aiyer, Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Under Secretary for IP, U.S. Department of Commerce
- Thaddeus Burns, Senior Counsel, Intellectual Property & Trade, General Electric Company
- Andras Forgacs, Co-Founder and CEO, Modern Meadow
- David Gump, Vice Chairman, Deep Space Industries
- Mark Hatch, CEO & Founder, TechShop
- John Hornick, Partner, Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner
- Porter Merriman, Director, Senior Corporate Counsel, Autodesk
- Peer Munck, CEO & Co-Founder, 3Discovered
- And many others
At the conference he had the opportunity to share the preliminary results from the first Ocean Tomo Patent Study on the 3D Printing Market. Fueled by the rapid advance of the Maker Movement, powered by open design communities, the 3D printing market is rapidly expanding. The 3D printing (3DP) or additive manufacturing market is over 30 years old. As the market expands from industrial market applications like rapid prototyping to mainstream consumer market, the industry is projected to grow to $16.2 billion in 2018. In order to rationalize this growth projection, Ocean Tomo undertook a study of the patent quality and historical trends within the 3D Printing space. This study, created by Ocean Tomo utilizing the Ocean Tomo Ratings™ System for patents issued by the USPTO, presents a unique look inside the patents issued by the USPTO that are supporting the development of the 3D Printing Market along with the assignees and inventors operating in the space. The report presents a focused look at the expired, abandoned and in-force patents within five leading technology areas in the 3D printing space including:
- Stereolithography (SL)
- Extrusion-based Fused Deposition Materials (FDM)
- Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
- Material Jetting
- Binder Jetting
These five technology areas represent 76% of the patents issued within the 3D printing space.
Further insight into Directed Energy Deposition, Electrophoretic Deposition, Laser Metal Forming, Laminated Object Manufacturing, Multiphoton Lithography and Photolithography is available as custom reports. The report also provides a patent portfolio assessment, an objective assessment of the overall quality of patents within the 3D Printing Market, as well as a competitive landscape – identification of relevant patents, assignees and inventors.
The Ocean Tomo Ratings™ System Study of 3D Printing Patents issued by the USPTO presents insight on the 3D Printing market useful to governments, corporations, research institutions, patent prosecution law firms, investment analysts and the media.