So, on Tesla’s blog today, Elon Musk announced they were effectively giving up their patents. Like he says:
Yesterday, there was a wall of Tesla patents in the lobby of our Palo Alto headquarters. That is no longer the case. They have been removed, in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology.
Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal. Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.
Elon Musk says he wants companies to use their technology to advance the state of electronic cars. Part publicity stunt? Probably. Even so, an interesting and bold move.
Oh, and as if the news itself wasn’t awesome enough, the blog title is a videogame meme.
Temperamentally he does feel sort of like an Asimov character, but the story is closer to The Man Who Sold the Moon by Heinlein. Especially effective the short story that ends the tale, Requiem.
Doesn’t he actually have to license the patents for this to have an effect? I wouldn’t thinking promising not to prosecute would be enough for other companies.
Wait, I heard that the main reason behind this open source is from all the lawsuits he is facing. Lawsuits involving not paying royalties to small tech developers. Basically, the guy has gone to small factories, taken their tech under the promise of payment, and not delivered.
Edit: Take it with a grain of salt. I have no proof, as I can’t find the link to the article.
I have not dug into this story, but from the analysis I read these patents primarily cover battery technology and charging and Tesla’s goal here is to try push adoption of the battery/charging technology they have perfected and essentially create a market for them to be the dominant players in.
