Selling merchandise generates a considerable revenue for Disney. 3D printing poses threat to this business segment of Disney. As 3D printing becomes more popular, it will become a challenge to control unauthorized copying of products, especially toys designed and sold by Disney.
The patented technology will limit unauthorized copying and provide authentication of 3D objects printed from authorized models fabricated on 3D printers. The patented technology includes 3D printing a model of an identification element (for example, RFID) on 3D printed objects to limit unauthorized copying.
Therefore, this technology from Disney involves operating the 3D printer to print the layers of a 3D object along with an integrally formed ID element. The ID element is embedded within the 3D object. For example, the integrally formed ID element may be a radio frequency ID (RFID) tag providing identification data when read by an RFD reader scanning the 3D object.
The RFID tag is configured such that when activated by an external reader it transmits ID data, and the ID data includes a serial number that acts to identify the ID element and, hence, to also identify the 3D object in which it has been formed.
Publication number: US 20160067927
Patent Title: Three Dimensional (3d) Printed Objects With Embedded Identification (ID) Elements
Publication date: 10 Mar 2016
Filing date: 9 Sep 2014
Inventors: Jeffrey VORIS; Benjamin Foster CHRISTEN; Jorge ALTED; David W. CRAWFORD;
Original Assignee: DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC.