A wall covered in Tesla patents was in the lobby of their Palo Alto headquarters on June 11, 2014. They were removed in accordance with the open-source strategy to hasten the development of technology for electric cars. Tesla Motors was established to speed the development of environmentally friendly transportation. If they pave the road for the creation of appealing electric vehicles but then lay intellectual property landmines in our wake to obstruct others, they are acting against that goal. No legal action will be taken against anyone who legitimately wishes to use Tesla’s innovations.
It was tesla employees’ fear that the big automakers would steal their ideas and use their unmatched manufacturing, marketing, and sales power to destroy the company that compelled them to file patent applications. Tesla was right though. The major automakers have very few programs for automatic cars which account for less than 1% of their overall sales. The major automakers are, at best, working on a select few electric vehicles with short ranges.
Patents don’t determine technology leadership since history has repeatedly shown that they provide little protection against a determined rival. Instead, it depends on how well a company can recruit and keep the top engineers in the world. According to Tesla, implementing the open source philosophy into our patents would strengthen rather than erode Tesla’s position.
Tesla created automotive history by becoming the first company to make all of its patents freely used by anyone. Elon’s personal insolvency was nearly caused by the technology he and his team toiled so arduously to create. This means that Tesla has opened their patents for every manufacturer.
8 years ago https://t.co/HPK5R5UMS6
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 10, 2022
