As I said on G+ where I saw this, there is literally no way I can give Makerbot the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Makerbot’s patent lawyers have issued a patent application for:
A bearing that provides contact force to engage a filament with a drive gear has a movable axis that can be controllably moved toward and away from the drive gear in order to engage and disengage the filament. A bearing is spring-biased toward the drive gear, and a bistable lever mechanism is provided with a first stable position in which the bearing is engaged with a filament and a second stable position in which the bearing is disengaged from the filament.
In other words the very thing that literally everyone is using on their printers already, developed and iterated by the thingiverse community to replace Makerbot’s own useless plunger design, Makerbot is now trying to claiming patent for like they invented it. Now, maybe I haven’t read the Thingiverse terms of use closely enough, but last time I checked it out it said they had the right to print anything we published there without compensation, but I don’t remember anything about them being able to patent them without permission or compensation.
I’ve defended Makerbot’s decisions in the past. But this one decision taints everything Makerbot in my opinion. This is a low, ugly move. The last time Thingiverse had a huge migration I kinda thought people were being a bit silly. But this time… I’m committed to never put anything else on Thingiverse ever again. Gotta decide between YouMagine or Treasure Island or pinshape. Maybe I’ll do them all.
So I guess in the end this is good for me. I now have no choice but to find an alternative to Thingiverse. So thank you Makerbot for being so despicable as to force my hand.
