The copyright violation of 3D printing has officially entered the criminal field.
On April 11, 2025, according to the resource database, Shanghai Jing’an police recently successfully destroyed an offense that used 3D printing technology to imitate large -scale cartoon figures. The criminal gang has crossed several links such as design, production and sales, forming a complete illegal industrial channel, the amount involved in the case reaching more than 33 million yuan. Currently, four people have been arrested and two of them were sentenced.
Recently, Jing’an police received a citizens’ report that the figure of well -known animation statues that he bought in an online store was a false product. After the identification, many products sold in the online store are fundamentally the same as the design drawings of the copyright holder and have constituted a copy of the original work, suspected of infringement to copyright.
According to the survey, since January 2021, the main culprit Wang has hired Han to form a design team without obtaining the copyright authorization to copy a certain number of well -known IP figures. The gang has carried out industrial hacking operations thanks to drawing designs, 3D modeling and printing prototypes and module mass production, and has built a complete gray supply chain.
The sales link is based on several online stores operated by WU, BAO and others for distribution, and pays costs to the agent to a ratio of 10% to 20% of sales. According to statistics, the gang illegally sold more than 17,000 counterfeit products, the amount involved exceeding 33 million yuan.
After obtaining the evidence, the police quickly launched an action and divided the troops into three groups to attack simultaneously: the illegal design studio was seized in the district of Jing’an, and computers, 3D printers and other tools were seized on the spot; More than 800 products in hand of the finish violation were seized in a private house in Pudong; In the Putuo district, the suspect Han, who destroyed the transaction file, was arrested on the spot, and the whole criminal chain surfaced.
According to the police from the Sanquan Road police station, the market price of an authentic statue is around 5,000 yuan, and the suspect sold it online at a low price of 3,000 yuan. The volume of sales is considerable and extremely tempting, which has seriously disrupted market order.
Currently, the Jing’an District People’s Tribunal sentenced WU to a month in prison and a fine of 320,000 yuan for the crime of selling counterfeit aftershocks; Bao was sentenced to one year and six months in prison and a fine of 900,000 yuan. The other main culprit Wang and the Han design manager were arrested in accordance with the law for allegedly author. The police said that the case was still under in -depth investigation and will continue to investigate upstream processing factories and downstream distribution networks involved in the case.
Technology is not guilty and is responsible for use
As the threshold of 3D printing technology continues to drop, it is no longer difficult for individuals or small teams to make exquisite statues, but legal authorization is always an inevitable net result. Especially with regard to commercial activities involving popular IPs such as animation, film and games, do not have the lucky mentality of “private modeling is harmless” and “small sales are not verified”.
The investigation into this case sounded another alarm for the 3D printing industry.
It should be mentioned more than similar cases are not isolated cases. Earlier, the Nanjing Jiangning development zone of development zone heard a manicure design infringement case caused by 3D printing. The three original sculpted models by the Xiaoling manicure were copied into manicure molds by others using 3D printing technology and commercially used. The court concluded that the law focused on copyright and ordered the violation to stop and compensate for 15,000 yuan.
Finally, the library calls: 3D printing can be used for non -commercial purposes such as personal learning, research and appreciation, and is generally a reasonable use of copyright; But once it is used for commercial operation, especially when it comes to copying the original conceptions of others, it must be authorized, otherwise legal responsibility will be carried.
Note: The photos of this article are from the Jing’an Public Security Bureau, and the information documents come from the official publication of Shanghai Jing’an.
