Open hardware patent defense

I just read @josefprusa’s piece on 3D printing hardware and the pipeline that turns cheap filings into chokepoints for open hardware: utility models, Paris priority, fast border actions.

A patent can be weak and still wreck your supply chain. CN and DE utility models are fast and cheap with no real exam. You can file a bunch and see what sticks. You then get a 12 month Paris priority window to refile abroad. In the US, a Section 337 ITC case can block imports in roughly 16 to 18 months. That is faster than most challenges land, and open hardware feels that first.

The asymmetry on cost and time is the kicker. In China, a utility model filing is around ¥500. In Europe, oppositions run for years. In the US, an ex parte reexam starts around 6.3k to 12.6k dollars before counsel. An ITC exclusion order keeps biting until it is lifted. That chills open manufacturing.

Policy makes it worse. China’s R and D super deduction sits around 200 percent in many cases. You do not need patents to claim it, but codifying R and D helps, so filings pile up. AM patents grew fast from 2013 to 2020, yet domestic utility models and local filings often do not show up in international family stats. The spike may be hiding in a different dataset.

What we can do next: Use CERN OHL v2 with patent retaliation. Publish defensively at scale so prior art is easy to find. Build a hardware OIN or LOT style group with pooled defense and prior art bounties. And yes, use AI to help with search and drafting, with humans in the loop.

Link: https://www.josefprusa.com/articles/open-hardware-in-3d-printing-is-dead/ Who funds a hardware patent defense league that small shops can join? How do we standardize AI assisted defensive publishing across languages? When we have AI patent clerks, can we make IP protection free, so open source maintainers can protect their good ideas like the big guys can?