Policy Innovation Blog

So I can print my own iPhone?

Stian Westlake - 14.01.2013

It's against the law to download a pirated £0.99 MP3. But (technology permitting) it seems that printing your own £249.00 iPod is fine.

That's one implication of this very useful paper on the state of UK law on 3D printing, by the excellent Simon Bradshaw (@major_clanger on Twitter) and co.

The paper explains that under UK law, you can print an awful lot of things with no legal comeback. (Assuming of course you have a good enough 3D printer*.)

Some interesting points from the article:

• Printing a copy of a patented item for private, non-commercial use, does not count as infringing the patent. However, uploading an electronic file of a patent probably is illegal, since it provides others with a means to infringe the patent, which is specifically prohibited.
• Copyright, eg for artistic originals, largely is protected. (There goes my plan to print my own Angel of the North.)
• (Registered) design rights have a similar exemption to patents. This may even be true if these users use a 3D printer in a public "copy shop". There's a further loophole in that it's less clear that providing others with the means to infringe a design right is illegal.

So while patents and design rights stop companies from copying each other's products and selling them, they provide much less protection from home users.

An interesting catch is that schools and universities, while non-commercial, aren't private, so while pupils may be able to print out their own iPhones at home, doing it at school would be patent-breaking. 

So, tech permitting, and if some reprobate sends you the specs, it looks like you can print your own iPhone**. Be prepared for interesting times in the world of IP.

* Of course, most 3D printers now are pretty basic, and print in plastic. Printing a working iPhone is still some considerable way off. But 3D printers can print in more and more materials, at ever greater degrees of resolutions, so chances are these legal points will become relevant quite soon.

** Boringly, I'd better add that I'm not a lawyer and none of this constitutes legal advice either from me or from Nesta. If you happen to have a secret super-top-end prototype 3D metal, glass and multi-plastic printer, please seek legal advice before printing other people's intellectual property.