Bambu Lab loses $27.6M patent verdict to Stratasys, launches laser engraver days later
On September 17, 2026, a federal jury in the Eastern District of Texas ordered Bambu Lab to pay Stratasys $27.6 million, finding that four Bambu Lab-linked entities had willfully infringed four Stratasys FDM patents. It’s the first verdict in a fight that started in August 2024, with a second, undated trial still to come. Bambu Lab has picked up some wins at the patent office along the way, but this round went to Stratasys. The company’s statement to 3Dnatives was terse: it disagrees with the verdict and plans to seek post-trial review and appeal.
Five days later, on September 22, Bambu Lab announced the R1, its first product outside 3D printing: a 55W CO2 laser cutter and engraver priced at $2,499 (€2,499 in the EU), shipping in October.
The R1 cuts wood, acrylic, leather, paper and fabric, engraves glass, stone and coated metal, handles 18mm plywood or 20mm acrylic on a 600 x 300mm bed, and takes stock up to 3 meters with an optional conveyor. Its pitch against other CO2 lasers is Auto Laser Alignment, a motorized system Bambu says corrects the beam in about a minute without the usual thermal-paper test-shot ritual. A three-camera and dual-laser setup called TriSense reportedly lets the machine trace a printed outline and cut along it to under 0.2mm accuracy, adjusting focus for uneven surfaces and syncing power to speed at up to 1000mm/s to keep engraving tone even.
The R1 runs on the same MakerWorld account and Bambu Suite software as Bambu’s printers. Whether the timing next to the verdict was deliberate, 3Dnatives could not say.
What’s missing from the public record: how the $27.6 million verdict affects Bambu Lab’s finances or product roadmap, and whether the R1’s laser technology carries any separate patent exposure.