Breaking News: TierTime dropped from Stratasys' lawsuit against Bambu Lab
The first twist in the August 2024 patent infringement case!
On August 8, 2024, the 3D printing industry was shaken by the news of two lawsuits filed by Stratasys against Bambu Lab, accusing them of infringing on 10 patents covering various FDM technology areas. However, Stratasys didn’t actually sue Bambu Lab directly, but rather a group of five Chinese companies allegedly behind the popular Chinese manufacturer.
This aspect of the case seemed odd from the start, as it was the first official hint suggesting that someone else might be behind Bambu Lab’s global success. It was also surprising to see TierTime included in the lawsuit – one of the oldest Chinese 3D printer manufacturers, founded in 2003, responsible for developing the Up! (desktop FFF 3D printers) and Inspire (industrial-grade 3D printers) brands.
Adding further intrigue was the fact that, 10 years ago, Stratasys had a lengthy, two-year patent dispute with Afinia, a U.S. brand offering Up! 3D printers, which was linked to TierTime. It seemed as if, a decade later, two old adversaries from opposite sides of the world were meeting again to fight another patent battle.
But now it turns out that either Stratasys made an embarrassing mistake, or the evidence it gathered wasn’t as strong as it appeared.
Recently revealed court documents show that on September 25, Stratasys filed a motion voluntarily dismissing its claims against TierTime (Beijing Tiertime Technology Co., Ltd.) and Beijing Yinhua Laser Rapid Prototyping and Mould Technology Co. Ltd.
The second company is actually the original name of Tiertime, meaning that both defendants represented the same entity from the start.
As a result, on September 30, Judge Rodney Gilstrap (of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Marshall Division) officially and formally dismissed the claims against TierTime.
This leaves the defendants in the patent case as Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai Lunkuo Technology Co., Ltd., Bambulab Limited, and Tuozhu Technology Limited.
At this point, the case looks even stranger than it did in August. The dismissal of the claims against TierTime is not surprising – its involvement only fueled conspiracy theories, which now seem unfounded.
Nevertheless, the fact that TierTime appeared in the lawsuit only to be dropped a month and a half later – and at the request of Stratasys itself – makes this case either very complex and confusing, or handled in a less than professional manner.
Lastly, there has been no official response from Bambu Lab so far, aside from a brief statement released shortly after the lawsuit made headlines.
In the link below you will find a complete set of court documents, including the described Stratasys letters.
Source: www.courtlistener.com