Get Me PPE: 3D Printing, the Maker Movement, and the COVID-19 Public Health Crisis

Creative Commons Summit 2020 - Thursday, 22 October 2020

Abstract

This presentation evaluates the responses of both the commercial and amateur sides of the 3D printing community to the coronavirus COVID-19 public health crisis. In the US, Dale Dougherty of Make has promoted Plan C — in which volunteers have worked together to produce PPE. In Canada, an educational 3D printing company pivoted and made the Canadian Shield. In the EU, the Fab Lab Network sought to overcome a breakdown in supply chains. In Australia and NZ, 3D printing has been used to augment supplies of PPE. This talk considers the challenges of IP, medical regulation, and product liability.

Biography

Dr Matthew Rimmer is a Professor in Intellectual Property and Innovation Law at the Faculty of Law, at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He has published widely on copyright law and information technology, patent law and biotechnology, access to medicines, plain packaging of tobacco products, intellectual property and climate change, Indigenous Intellectual Property, and intellectual property and trade. Rimmer is currently working as a Chief Investigator on an ARC Discovery Project on ‘Inventing The Future: Intellectual Property and 3D Printing’ (2017–2020). He is also undertaking research on; the regulation of robotics and artificial intelligence; and intellectual property and public health (particularly looking at the coronavirus COVID-19). His work is archived at QUT ePrints, SSRN Abstracts, Bepress Selected Works, and Open Science Framework.