3D Printing and Product Liability: You may not be protected under current liability law
Under current "strict liability" product law, if a person gets ill from eating tainted food he purchased at Wal-Mart, he can sue the supermarket for the injuries. But if a person injured by a home-printed product, what will happen then? Engstrom said, "in many instances, no one will be strictly liable for these injuries under current product liability doctrine." And this person would "likely only be left with a negligence-based lawsuit."
But that doesn't mean when home 3-D printing really does take off, consumer won't be protected under any law. "The various obstacles I identify in the path of a plaintiff injured by a home-3D-printed object don't necessarily stand in the way of a plaintiff injured by a commercially-printed object," she told Stanford News. Rules could be gradually modified and continuously adjusted to changing social and economic conditions. She pointed out, It is also possible that, courts will impose liability by expansively applying the negligence standard, so "some plaintiffs injured by home-printed objects might actually prevail in "old-fashioned negligence" lawsuits".
[www.3ders.org]
Stanford Scholar Suggests 3-D Printers May Circumvent Current Liability Law
[www.youtube.com]
Under current "strict liability" product law, if a person gets ill from eating tainted food he purchased at Wal-Mart, he can sue the supermarket for the injuries. But if a person injured by a home-printed product, what will happen then? Engstrom said, "in many instances, no one will be strictly liable for these injuries under current product liability doctrine." And this person would "likely only be left with a negligence-based lawsuit."
But that doesn't mean when home 3-D printing really does take off, consumer won't be protected under any law. "The various obstacles I identify in the path of a plaintiff injured by a home-3D-printed object don't necessarily stand in the way of a plaintiff injured by a commercially-printed object," she told Stanford News. Rules could be gradually modified and continuously adjusted to changing social and economic conditions. She pointed out, It is also possible that, courts will impose liability by expansively applying the negligence standard, so "some plaintiffs injured by home-printed objects might actually prevail in "old-fashioned negligence" lawsuits".
[www.3ders.org]
Stanford Scholar Suggests 3-D Printers May Circumvent Current Liability Law
[www.youtube.com]