LOL
Nie sądzę żeby Słowacy przeglądali to forum [...]
źródło: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bSEfx6D8mA
Wszędzie Cię dorwą. Nie ukryjesz się!
@inux3d
It is great that you guys joined
Now the discussion brings all interested parties and It is getting interesting.
I think this is very interesting piece when considering ownership of design and idea itself.You are free to share your files with anyone - they are your files after all. [...] Selling them, is another matter, that may complicate things
Could you elaborate on why selling those files could complicate things?
Are the files really his, if he potentially could not decide whether to sell them? (basically choose to do whatever he wanted)
Did you registered it under industrial design in EU or not as dziobu speculated?
I especially wonder about it being purely functional piece, which have certain way of looking due to mounting points of connecting elements and practical application.
Other thing, which is debatable is the sheer amount and substantiality of morf's design portion used in relation to your work as a whole, so could you tell how much would you believe it is (approximately) from your perspective?
To put it simply; if you would like to achieve the same result of aligning those specific elements vertical could you made the mount any other way?
And is in your opinion just an imitation or plagiarism?
I especially wanted to exclude this piece from your post:
because it is simply illegal under EU trademark protection laws, as well as internal laws (definetly ours and propably yours too), which was mentioned in previous post and in this direction there is nothing enlightening more to add on the subject.Please do not use our brand and product names though as this would be an issue.
The reason we do not share/sell the stl files is more related to the execution of the design. The material used is not cheap PLA and the technique of printing is very specific. Additionally, there are nuts and bolts involved that the end user would have to purchase to assemble the parts together. There are more than 10 bolts involved with specific tolerances, that many may not find easy to find/achieve.
In early alpha stage of the design, we shared the files with some 3d printing community members to see how they would print and make it.
The results were from funny to tragic. Bad prints, toolmarks visible, wrong nuts resulting in improper fitting etc.
Now imagine these prints being photographed and shared via social media! Would that make people want to buy it?
Maybe you have chosen the wrong testers and/or control group.
Well, I have done precisely thatPrusa has open sourced their product, but how likely will it be for a user to source all the parts from a hundred vendors (the electronics and metal parts) rather than just buying from Prusa at the end of the day?
Due to exact same reason as morf - I am impatient guy and when I bought my Original Prusa kit and was so satisfied with it that wanted to buy another, but lead time was more than a month at that time (maybe even 8 weeks if i recall), so I tracked every part and sourced them myself in few weeks with exact parts. It's worth mentioning that cost was comparable to original kit, but the time was IMHO (and still is) more valuable, so why not taking the same principle to this part - why should I wait 2-5 days for something that I could get in a few hours? If it was available, that is I am not talking about making design open-source, but selling files could
Other thing is that selling model itself could be also marketing strategy for some companies - worked for edelkrone, about which I have never even heard before they released product to print.
It should all boil down to risk assesment, which is potentially more beneficial? Risking someone selling your design is big and valid concern, but how it compares to lost revenue for not exploring this option and is it protecting from someone who (like morf) can open CAD and make something that does the same or very similar thing?
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4649302
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4105150
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3605637
If you would sell a whole kit (RPI + adapter + SSD) and as a part of it you could buy models to print for a few euros more in addition to choosing the printed part, then it would made much more sense for me (from a customer perspective), as it would save me the hassle of designing it myself, which i would rather do than buy the already printed one, because that is why i have 3d printers - to print stuff.
Concerning the price itself (following an example of 7 EUR per part and 5 EUR for .stl) what need to go into considerations, that you technically do an outsourcing of manufacturing to end client, so price should reflect that. Downside is a lower income, but upside is no need to think about logistics, machine (upkeep, material, operating and future maintenance) - you could only desing the part, prototype it (that is what 3d printing is best at), create manual/assembly instruction and sell it many times (possible infinite) over long time with no stock needed, especially important if its more than low batch of parts to manufacture.
Don't take my advice as I wont tell you how to run your company ofc, but rather raising something to think about.
And also arguments that i've made lean towards selling the design as I wanted to counter your current stance, but my opinion is that maybe you should not do it based on the products portfolio that you have.
Especially, when you focus intensively on selling the printed parts as seperate products i think in that case sharing the .stl would be defeating or at least water down a little the purpose of it.
I base this on the notion that 3d printing market is either a niche, so it is not worth it to share the design or it is so popular that risk of sharing copies of your design is too great - simultaneously.
If you could not share the .stl, but achieve the same result, then i guess would cover concerns in your case - which brings me to idea #4
maybe you could sell mount by generating machine-specific .gcode on your website (like slicer engine in the octoprint). Profiles for material and 3d printer should already be there or you could tweak it.
It is just an idea, which have drawbacks, especially in implementation and its a hassle, but i'm just putting it out there.
FYI:
I have stumbled upon interesting fact; That under EU law unregistered community design looses its protection after 3 years of being " available to the public in such a way that the interested circles operating within the European Union (EU) can reasonably be aware of the design."
https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/d ... pean-union
https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/u ... ity-design
Even if you had all the rights to the design, when you wont pay EU its cut for registration anyone can copy it (if not infringing other IP rights)
so I guess in around 14months (based on your domain registration date) the discussion about legality wound not matter that much
