The Economist has a very interesting article about "fab labs," a compact, low-cost collection of devices that anyone, anywhere, can customize to manufacture a gadget of their choice. "Fab labs" are expected to be a boon to inventors in third world countries, who have conceived of a useful gadget to solve a local problem but who ordinarily have no access to facilities that would enable them to make a prototype. But one aspect of the labs that the economist does not discuss is that these would also enable non-inventors pretty much anywhere to make copies of gadgets invented by someone else, potentially eroding the original inventors' income stream. So far, I emphasize that this is a purely theoretical potential problem. It may turn out that it is far easier and cheaper to buy the "official" version than to cook up one's own copy in a fab lab. And the fab labs aren't set up for mass production--i.e. counterfeiting. Still, it does seem that the IP enforcement problem is just about to get broader and yet more complex.

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 12:17 PM | Counterfeit, Patents

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