On September 17, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that an affiliate of Bambu Lab had infringed on four 3D printing patents held by Stratasys. The infringement was deemed willful, and the jury awarded damages of $27.6 million (approximately 190 million yuan). On September 18, Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the Marshall Division of the court signed the final judgment, upholding the $27.6 million base amount of damages but dismissing the plaintiff’s requests to increase the damages and to issue a permanent sales ban against Bambu Lab. (Case No.: 2:24-cv-00644-JRG)

Founded in 2020, Tuozhu Technology is a Chinese company specializing in consumer-grade 3D printers. Its flagship products include the X1, P1, and A1 series of 3D printers, which are targeted at individual users and the maker community. In recent years, the company has rapidly entered the global consumer-grade 3D printing market. Stratasys, a long-standing player in the 3D printing industry, operates in industrial-grade 3D printing equipment, consumables, and supporting software, and holds a large number of patents related to additive manufacturing.

The dispute originated in August 2024, when Stratasys filed a total of two patent lawsuits against Tuozhu in the United States, involving 10 patents in total; this is the first of the two cases to complete a jury trial. In its complaint, Stratasys alleged that multiple 3D printer models in Tuozhu’s X1, P1, and A1 series fall within the scope of its patent protection, and requested that the court award damages and issue an injunction.

A total of four patents were subject to jury deliberation in this case, with damages calculated separately for each patent:

·?US 9,421,713: Relates to 3D printing material removal tower technology, with corresponding damages of $14.2 million;

·?US 7,555,357: Relates to extrusion-based 3D printing path generation technology, with corresponding damages of $10.6 million;

·?US 9,168,698 and US 10,556,381: Both patents relate to force-sensing technology for 3D printers, with combined damages of $2.8 million. The total damages for the four patents amount to $27.6 million.

In this case, the jury found Tuozhu guilty of willful infringement. Pursuant to Section 284 of the U.S. Patent Act, the court has the discretion to increase damages in cases of willful infringement, up to three times the amount awarded by the jury; the theoretical maximum damages in this case could have reached approximately $82.8 million. However, after reviewing all trial evidence, Judge Gilstrap determined that there was no need to apply enhanced damages in this case and denied Stratasys’s motion for treble damages; The court also denied the plaintiff’s request for a permanent injunction.

In response to the litigation, Tuozhu mounted a defense against the infringement claims in district court while simultaneously filing an Inter Partes Review (IPR) to challenge the validity of the patent before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In February 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a claim construction ruling regarding the patent at issue, clarifying the scope of patent protection and laying the groundwork for the trial.

At present, this $27.6 million judgment does not mark the end of the dispute between the two parties. Tuozhu may still challenge the jury’s findings of infringement and damages through post-trial motions and subsequent appeals; meanwhile, another patent lawsuit filed by Stratasys—involving different technologies such as networked 3D printing, identification of printing material information, and printer configuration—has not yet set a new trial date, leaving the plaintiff room to continue asserting its patent rights.