Carbon has won a significant legal battle in Europe. A Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) has rejected a competitor’s challenge to one of Carbon’s foundational dual cure patents, upholding the broadest claim of Carbon’s European Patent No. 3158400.
The ruling affirms the earlier EPO Opposition Division decision maintaining claim 1 and restores additional dependent claims that had been removed during the original opposition proceeding.
Dual-cure is the chemistry at the heart of Carbon’s Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) technology. The resin is first cured with light during printing, then a second, usually thermal, reaction is applied to the finished object, giving the part its final mechanical properties.
This decision is hard to overturn. EPO opposition is the only procedure through which a European patent can be challenged centrally, across all countries where it has been validated, and there is no ordinary avenue of appeal against a Board of Appeal decision.
Any further attempt to invalidate the patent would have to go through national courts or the Unified Patent Court, separately and at a significantly higher cost. The protection will expire in 2035.
For the market, this means that companies offering comparable light-then-heat resin processes in Europe must now reckon with a patent that has been tested and confirmed.
For Philip DeSimone, CEO of Carbon, the decision “confirms the strength and breadth of the innovation that is foundational to Carbon’s platform.” He added that Carbon will keep investing in and protecting its innovations.
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