Support the Creator: Defending Thingiverse Cube!

I've been a big supporter of the Thingiverse 3D community for a long time. As designers, we pour our hearts into creating free 3D objects for people to print in their homes.

My "bakercube" design on Thingiverse

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2676324

gained immense popularity, becoming the most downloaded object for an astounding 16 months. Over 158K of you printed it at home (Sep 26, 2019, web.archive.org) within the first 2 years, and I'm grateful for the strong sense of community we've built on this platform.

However, two lawyers operating under KitchenCube LLC and Altamatic LLC used my cube design without any authorization, manufactured it in China, and are now selling the derivative copy of the cube on the market. This is a blatant violation of the Creative Commons, non-commercial, no derivative license I applied to my work.

On their website, KitchenCube claims to have “designed” my cube, but they also admit, on the same page, to "finding" it on Thingiverse. They are now attempting to file a fraudulent patent application for a stolen design of my cube.

When I confronted them, they told me to go away and threatened legal action against me. I believe in standing up for creator's rights, and I refuse to let our hard work be exploited in this manner.

We are raising funds to cover legal costs and to cover expenses needed to stop these offenders. Any additional funds will be used to help us bring the original Thingiverse cube to the market: a high-quality, dishwasher-safe product, this time authorized and manufactured by its rightful owner and creator and not a cheap knockoff, currently on the market. Let’s stand against people who rip creators off.

Join me in this fight to protect creator's rights, preserve the integrity of our hard work, and uphold the values of the Thingiverse community.

Thank you for your support.

Tom

Creator of the Measuring Cube, bakercube.

LEFT: My licensed cube, file cube_ver3.STL, posted on Thingiverse.com under Creative Commons license, non-commercial, no derivatives use

RIGHT: KitchenCube, infringing my license, virtually identical cube created from my files

LEFT: my cube side A

RIGHT: KitchenCube, side A

LEFT: my cube side B

RIGHT: KitchenCube, side B

LEFT: my cube side C

RIGHT: KitchenCube, side C

LEFT: my cube side D

RIGHT: KitchenCube, side D

LEFT: my cube side E

RIGHT: KitchenCube, side E

The “patent pending” note above suggests that a fraudulent patent application was filled to the U.S. Patent Office by KitchenCube or by the owner of KitchenCube. Those parties admit on their web page that they “found” my cube on Thingiverse.