Tesla: “All Our Patents Are Belong To You” (via Gas 2.0)
In a blog post entitled “All Our Patents Are Belong To You”, Elon Musk has once again done something revolutionary; opened Tesla’s patents for use by any other automaker. This guy is the real deal. When’s the last time a billionaire CEO quoted…
This post was republished using Repost. Please read it on Informed Comment directly: https://www.juancole.com/2014/06/electric-patents-belong.html
——
Related video:
This has happened before. In the late 1940s and early 1950s John von Neumann made various patents related to computers widely available to the industry. This was technology paid for by the government and developed largely at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
There’s no question that the move by von Neumann accelerated the development of computers. In a sense, the government subsidized the development of computers, though many advances were subsequently made by many different companies. Why conservative Republicans object to such government/industry partnerships is a mystery. They happen to work.
But it is unusual for an entrepreneur to make such patents available, though it is also likely to accelerate development of an industry.
Thank you Prof. Cole for posting this! Very cool. And @Craig, nice to know that too. I… dabble in stuff, and always worried about bigger companies being able to overtake little ones. I don’t know for certain, of course, but I think this helps.
Maybe, in the long run, the patents won’t be worth as much as we (well not me) think they are. I do know, though, how important it is to have a future full of cars.
Tesla’s patents may belong to everyone, but curved corners definitely only belong to Apple.
Per news reports, several global car companies are very interested and are already talking to Tesla to license their charger design and put more charging stations around the US, Europe and Asia. basically Tesla will get enough other car makers to use their design so it becomes an industry standard and jump starts the number of charging stations. GM and ford my balk, but Toyota will probably quietly join the bandwagon because Toyota quietly owns part of Tesla and has contracted with Tesla to design and build the power system for a Toyota electric car (which is why Tesla needs a battery factory).