Pop Mart Sues Bambu Lab Over 3D Printed Labubu Files - What the 2026 Case Means for the Industry
· general
Pop Mart has escalated its fight against 3D printed counterfeits. In March 2026, the company filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Bambu Lab the maker of some of the world's most popular consumer 3D printers over Labubu character files shared on Bambu Lab's MakerWorld platform. The case is set to be heard on April 2, 2026, in a Shanghai court.
This isn't about a single Taobao seller anymore. This is a brand going after the platform itself.
What's Different About This Case
In late 2024, Pop Mart won a copyright case against an individual who 3D printed and sold Labubu replicas on Taobao. That case was relatively straightforward: a seller copied a protected design for profit. The damages were modest RMB 10,000 (about USD 1,380).
The 2026 case is fundamentally different:
This is like the difference between suing someone who burned pirated CDs versus suing Napster. The stakes are completely different.
The Facts
Labubu is Pop Mart's biggest money-maker, generating over 30% of total sales revenue in 2025.
MakerWorld, Bambu Lab's model-sharing platform, has over 1 million 3D models and nearly 10 million monthly active users.
Thousands of Labubu-related STL files were freely available on MakerWorld before the lawsuit. Searching "Labubu" on MakerWorld now returns zero results.
Chinese customs seized 1.83 million counterfeit Labubu products in 2025 alone.
A home-printed Labubu costs as little as USD $0.50 in PLA filament, compared to $30for a retail figure.
Bambu Lab itself runs a "Creator Copyright Protection Program" to protect original models on its platform which makes the irony of this lawsuit impossible to ignore.
The "Safe Harbor" Question
The legal core of this case revolves around safe harbor doctrine the principle that platforms aren't automatically liable for what users upload, as long as they remove infringing content promptly when notified.
This doctrine has protected platforms like YouTube and Shopee for years. The question for the court:
1. Did MakerWorld know (or should it have known) that Labubu files were being shared?
2. Did it act fast enough to remove them after notification?
3. Did the platform's design encourage infringement? (e.g., recommendation algorithms surfacing popular IP characters)
If Pop Mart wins, it could force every 3D model platform MakerWorld, Thingiverse, Printables, Cults3D to implement proactive IP scanning, similar to YouTube's Content ID system. That would fundamentally change how the 3D printing community shares files.
What This Means for 3D Printing Businesses
Whether you run a 3D printing service, sell printed goods, or just print as a hobby, the legal landscape is tightening:
For Printing Services
Liability extends beyond the person who designed the file. The 2024 case proved that even "just printing someone else's file" doesn't protect you.
Accepting orders to print recognizable characters even from a customer-supplied file carries