3. 3D printing and IP: the state of the art

The challenge is to create a realistic and balanced legal framework, while avoiding two main pitfalls: under- or over-regulation. The origins of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), negotiated during the Uruguay Round (1986-1994), which introduced intellectual property rules into the multilateral trading system for the first time, lie in the fact that ideas and knowledge represent an increasingly important part of trade. In fact, it states: "the value of new medicines and other high-tech products lies above all in the efforts of invention, innovation, research, design and testing required for their manufacture. Films, music recordings, books, computer software and online services are sold and bought for the information and creativity embodied in them, not, as a rule, for the plastics, metals or paper used in their production. Many products...