The Stratasys / Bambu Lab patent dispute continues — in Europe.
Readers may recall that in 2024, Stratasys launched a patent infringement lawsuit against Bambu Lab. We suspected at the time that Stratasys may have believed that Bambu Lab was cutting into their business, and therefore it was time to leverage the several patents Stratasys owns.
At this time, the US lawsuit (actually there are two) is still proceeding. The case has gone through various stages, including discovery, and eventually will reach the trial stage. That is, unless the parties reach some sort of agreement behind the scenes before then.
Now I’ve learned that Stratasys had also launched a similar — but slightly different — lawsuit in Europe.
You should know that patents are territorial: US patents control activity in the US; EU patents control activity in the EU, etc. Enforcements can only take place in the region covered by the patent.
The specific EU patent involved is EP2964450, which deals with the use of prime towers. Those are those throwaway towers printed during a job to help purge the nozzle of materials during a colour swap.
The case brought forward by Stratasys asked for a “preliminary injunction” against Bambu Lab, specifically to stop sales of their H2C model. This system uses the company’s new Vortek technology and indeed does at times print prime towers.
However, the wording of the patent turned out to be an important matter. Each party provided a different interpretation of the wording, and the panel in The Hague decided to accept Bambu Lab’s interpretation instead of Stratasys’ version.
This meant that the request for the preliminary injunction was denied, and Bambu Lab can continue selling the H2C in Europe.
Meanwhile, the much larger case in the US continues, and it remains to be seen how that plays out, and Bambu Lab will continue selling their equipment.
Via Michael
