Hi.
Doh, totally fell for Your necro-bump 
Well played indeed 
Apologies for slight OT…
Generally speaking -and especially with our hobby lasers- @Sparkman raises a very valid and extremely important concern.
Commercial business of any kind is an entirely different thing, they have found a way to do it safely and feasibly.
After all they are primarily making money, it just happens to be made with lasers.
When evaporated/melted with laser energy, most of the materials that fall into “plastic” material category release nasty chemical compounds that are harmful to You and Your laser equipment.
The plastic category materials including obviously paints and other coatings.
A good rule of thumb is that if the material is man-made, there’s a good chance that harmful compounds are released when cut or marked with a laser.
It’s better to be safe than sorry, there’s a pic floating on the 'net and on these forums of a brand new laser cutter with a few hours of PVC/ABS (can’t remember which one) cutting behind it, and unfortunately that hefty investment can be written off as a total and complete loss.
Can, yes.
But working with ABS or other plastics often require special arrangements and/or equipment in order to be done safely.
There is a viable marking method for ABS that I previously wasn’t aware of, discussed at least in this:
thread.
The method is called “ABS foaming” and can produce quite decent results with minimal gaseous compound releasing.
In theory, if the bubbles do not burst, there’s no gaseous compounds released either.
Reality is obviously a different matter because some of the bubbles will burst, so accurate fume extraction is still required.
I haven’t tried ABS foaming yet so I can’t tell what equipment/wavelength produce the most consistent results.
On that thread the laser used was a xTool (near)IR module.
With that particular module, the extremely narrow focus range (a few tenths of a millimeter) combined with low power (2W optical), means marking anything but absolutely flat surface will produce yet another set of obstacles for achieving consistent results.
I’d assume that in this particular case, the foamed surface would offer a quite good grip for the paint.
OT off.
Edit: Since this is a necro thread, has anyone found a viable solution to this particular problem?
^This.
If (and as) the goal is to minimize the release of harmful fumes and maximize the accuracy and consistency, the protective film (whatever plastic that may be), its adhesive (if any), and the gas/air pockets forming between the surface and the protective film won’t help achieving those goals.
So my vote would also go for using a jig and removing the protective film if that’s feasible.
Regards,
Sam