Honda Hits 3D Printing Sites With Takedown Orders Over Honda-Compatible Parts

A writer for The Drive reports that "Recently, I noticed a part that I made for my Honda Accord was removed from Printables, the newly rebranded 3D printing repository offered by Prusa.

"There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for it, but I didn't think anything else about it...until reports of a mass deletion started popping up on Reddit." All models referencing the word "Honda" posted prior to March 30, 2022, were seemingly removed from Printables without warning. These included speaker brackets, key housings, hood latches, shifter bushings, washer fluid caps, roof latch handles, and my trunk lid handle — a part not offered on 10th generation Accords sold in the U.S. at all. In fact, many of the removed parts had no Honda branding but were just compatible with Honda vehicles. As it turns out, Prusa says it was issued a takedown notice from Honda and removed all 3D models that referenced the brand.

I can confirm to you that we received a letter from a lawyer representing Honda, telling us that we were required to remove any model which used Honda in the listing, the model itself, or one of several trademarks/logos also associated with Honda. The document included items that did not have Honda logos, but also items with certain shapes and dimensions, like a washer fluid reservoir cap.

There is a suggestion that other sites that host 3D models were also sent a similar notice.