if not hundreds, of small intellectual property skirmishes. These skirmishes will attempt to wed existing intellectual property protections to new realities, and in doing so will slowly change the state of the law. While it would be easy to miss these skirmishes -- an obscure lawsuit here, a small amendment to the law there -- it will be critical not to. In aggregate, these changes will decide how free we will be to use disruptive new technologies like 3D printing to their fullest potential. What follows is a list of the issues most likely to be fought over. Patent Expansion of Contributory Infringement Traditional patent infringement is not necessarily well suited to a world in which individuals are replicating patented items in their own homes for their own use. Unlike with copyright infringement, the mere possession or downloading of a file is not enough to create infringement liability. [36] In order to identify an infringer, the patent owner would need to find a way to determine that the device was actually replicated in the physical world by the potential defendant. This would likely be significantly more time and resource intensive than the monitoring of file trading sites used in copyright infringement cases. In light of this, following in the wake of large copyright holders, patent owners may turn to the doctrine of contributory infringement to defend their rights. [37] This would allow patent owners to go after those who enable individuals to replicate patented items in their homes. For example,