Chinese toy giant Pop Mart has filed a lawsuit against Chinese 3D printer maker Bambu Lab, accusing the company of intellectual property infringement after users widely shared Labubu toy templates on its model-sharing platform MakerWorld.

The case, disclosed last Saturday by corporate database Qichacha, is scheduled to be heard on April 2 in a Shanghai court. Neither Pop Mart nor Bambu Lab has publicly commented on the lawsuit. 

3D printing Labubu figures at home using MakerWorld templates went viral on Chinese social media last year, with some models drawing nearly 20,000 downloads. The platform boasts more than 1 million models and about 10 million monthly active users, offering uploaders incentives such as gift cards, cash, and the ability to launch paid memberships.

Printing a standard-size Labubu at home costs only about 3 yuan (40 cents) in materials, while originals sold by scalpers have been known to fetch several hundred yuan. Basic desktop 3D printers are typically priced at around 2,000 yuan. 

A check by Sixth Tone on Friday found MakerWorld had removed templates linked to Pop Mart intellectual property, while models based on other popular franchises such as Disney, Hello Kitty, Black Myth: Wukong, and Nezha, remained available. On e-commerce platform Taobao, 3D-printed Labubu figures are still being sold for around 25 yuan.

Industry observers say Bambu Lab’s rapid growth underscores the expansion of China’s consumer 3D-printing market, with its MakerWorld platform helping lower barriers to using 3D printers.

The company reported revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan in 2025, accounting for about one-third of the global consumer 3D-printer market. China’s 3D-printer market is projected to surpass 120 billion yuan by 2029.

Bambu Lab is also involved in another IP dispute. In 2025, the copyright holder of the Chinese animated film “The Legend of Luo Xiaohei” sued the company for infringement. The next hearing in that case is scheduled for this month.

MakerWorld has separately filed complaints against rival platforms Creality Cloud, Nexprint, and MakerOnline, accusing them of reposting its “exclusive models” without authorization.

Yang Weixin, a lawyer at He&Partners Law Firm in eastern Jiangsu province, told Sixth Tone that Bambu Lab could face liability in the Pop Mart case if it is found to have facilitated the spread of infringing content while benefiting from the resulting traffic.

Yang added that even when models are not exact copies of the original Labubu design, reproducing distinctive features — such as the character’s large eyes, teeth, and signature expression — could still constitute infringement if creators profit from the designs.

Editor: Marianne Gunnarsson.

(Header image: 3D-printed Labubus. From Xiaohongshu)