Stratasys wins $27.6m patent verdict against Bambu Lab as second trial looms

A Texas federal jury has found four Bambu Lab entities liable for willful infringement of four Stratasys patents covering 3D-printing technologies, awarding approximately $27.6 million in past damages in the first of two related patent cases.

Stratasys has secured a $27.6 million patent verdict against Bambu Lab after a jury in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas found four Bambu-related companies liable for willful infringement of four patents covering 3D-printing technology.

The verdict was returned following a week-long trial before US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap in the Marshall Division. The defendants identified in reporting on the verdict are Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Lunkuo Technology Co. Ltd., Bambulab Ltd., and Tuozhu Technology Limited.

The jury found that the four patents presented at trial were valid and infringed and determined that the infringement was willful. The award represents approximately $27.6 million in past damages.

Four Stratasys patents

The patents at issue are:

• US Patent No. 9,168,698, concerning a three-dimensional printer with force detection;
• US Patent No. 10,556,381, also concerning a three-dimensional printer with force detection;
• US Patent No. 9,421,713, concerning an additive manufacturing method using purge towers; and
• US Patent No. 7,555,357, concerning a method for building three-dimensional objects using extrusion-based layered deposition systems.

The patents therefore cover several aspects of extrusion-based 3D printing, including force detection, material purging during printing, and the generation of extrusion-based layers.

The jury rejected Bambu’s challenges to the validity of the four patents presented at trial.

First of two patent cases

The verdict resolves only the first stage of a broader dispute between Stratasys and Bambu Lab.

Stratasys filed two patent infringement lawsuits against Bambu-related entities in 2024, collectively asserting 10 US patents. The first case is Stratasys, Inc. v. Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology Co. Ltd. et al., No. 2:24-cv-00644-JRG, in the Eastern District of Texas.

The four patents considered by the jury came from that first action. A fifth patent originally associated with the case, US Patent No. 9,592,660, was not presented to the jury. The second lawsuit remains unresolved. According to reporting following the verdict, the second case has not yet been scheduled for trial, meaning the September verdict does not bring the wider Stratasys-Bambu litigation to an end.

Willful infringement and post-trial proceedings

The jury’s finding of willful infringement is significant because willfulness can have consequences for the damages ultimately awarded in a patent case.

The verdict itself, however, should be distinguished from any subsequent determination concerning enhanced damages or other equitable relief. The jury awarded approximately $27.6 million in past damages; the precise scope of any further relief is a matter for the court and subsequent proceedings. Bambu Lab has already indicated that it intends to challenge the result.

The company said it disagrees with the verdict and intends to pursue post-trial review and an appeal. Any appeal from the district court’s patent judgment would ultimately lie with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Parallel USPTO proceedings

The district-court litigation has also been accompanied by challenges before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Bambu has challenged several of the Stratasys patents through inter partes review proceedings. The PTAB has reached different outcomes in proceedings involving patents asserted in the wider dispute.

In particular, the Board upheld the challenged validity of US Patent No. 9,421,713, the purge-tower patent that was among those presented to the Texas jury. Bambu has appealed that PTAB decision to the Federal Circuit.

By contrast, the PTAB found claims of US Patent No. 9,592,660 unpatentable. That patent was not among the four patents ultimately decided by the jury in the September trial. Bambu has also identified a PTAB decision concerning US Patent No. 8,562,324, another patent involved in the broader Stratasys litigation.

The parallel proceedings add another layer to the dispute, with validity questions concerning Stratasys’s patent portfolio being litigated before both the PTAB and the Federal Circuit while infringement claims proceed in the district court.

Second trial still to come

The September verdict therefore represents an important result for Stratasys, but it does not resolve the companies’ wider patent dispute.

The first trial addressed four patents and resulted in a $27.6 million past-damages award. The second Stratasys action, involving additional patents asserted against Bambu Lab, remains pending and has yet to receive a trial date. The outcome of the post-trial proceedings and any subsequent Federal Circuit appeal could also affect the final trajectory of the first case.

For the 3D-printing industry, the litigation is significant not only because of the size of the verdict but because it places a major established additive-manufacturing company against one of the industry’s prominent newer consumer 3D-printer manufacturers in a dispute involving patents covering technologies used in extrusion-based printing.

With a second case still pending and related PTAB proceedings continuing, the $27.6 million verdict is unlikely to be the final development in the Stratasys-Bambu Lab patent dispute.

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