With 3-D printers, businesses and individuals are becoming more capable of building their own cheap replacement parts for machinery instead of going back to manufacturers and, in most cases, paying higher prices to those manufacturers. 'We’re at the tipping point,' Darrell Mottley, patent and trademark attorney at Washington-based Banner & Witcoff, told Bloomberg Law. 'The technology has got to where it’s not that expensive. If you’re a manufacturer and people start making their own replacement parts, what does that mean?' 

Taking a tough line?

Some manufacturers appear to be taking a tough line in pursuing organisations and individuals which infringe their copyright. Others are taking a more nuanced line. Lego A/S, for instance, will allow personal use of some toys made via 3-D printing but they look likely to take a different view if products are sold. A spokesman is quoted as saying: 'We will definitely want to pursue infringements as and when we see them, in order to ensure the protection of our brand and ultimately the consumers.' Nokia Oyj, the manufacturer of mobile handsets, has taken a different view and seems more relaxed about the prospect of customers using 3-D printers to customise their devices.