PTAB finds claims in four Stratasys patents unpatentable after $27.6 million Bambu verdict
The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board has ruled claims in four Stratasys patents unpatentable, roughly two weeks after a Texas jury ordered Bambu Lab to pay Stratasys $27.6 million for infringing four patents. The IPR petitions were filed by Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology, Bambu Lab’s parent company.
Two of the four patents were part of the jury’s verdict. All challenged claims of US 10,556,381 (force detection) were found unpatentable, and 14 of 15 challenged claims of US 9,168,698 were found unpatentable, including claim 10, which the jury had found infringed. Only claim 12 of the ’698 patent survived. Together the two patents accounted for $2.8 million of the $27.6 million award, according to the signed judgment in Case No. 2:24-cv-00644-JRG.
| Patent | PTAB outcome |
|---|---|
| US 10,556,381 (force detection) | All challenged claims unpatentable |
| US 9,168,698 (force detection) | 14 of 15 claims unpatentable |
| US 11,886,774 (printer configuration data) | All 14 challenged claims unpatentable |
| US 10,569,466 (tagged build material/RFID) | All 17 challenged claims unpatentable |
The other two patents belong to Stratasys’s second, untried lawsuit against Bambu Lab, where a third patent already had claims ruled unpatentable in June 2026. That case has no trial date.
The rulings don’t touch the bulk of the damages. The purge tower patent, US 9,421,713, covers $14.2 million of the award and was upheld by the PTAB in June 2026, a decision Bambu has appealed. The toolpath generation patent, US 7,555,357, covers $10.6 million and is under ex parte reexamination; it expires in March 2027. Stratasys can still appeal the new PTAB rulings to the Federal Circuit, and claims are only formally canceled once appeals are exhausted. Post-trial motions in the first case are due October 16, 2026.