Tesla Motors Opens Up Its Patents

The electric car company Tesla Motors has
announced it would allow its patents to be used in good faith and
not pursue legal action against those who do use them. Tesla’s CEO
Elon Musk announced
on the company blog:

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.

When I started out with my first company, Zip2, I thought
patents were a good thing and worked hard to obtain them. And maybe
they were good long ago, but too often these days they serve merely
to stifle progress, entrench the positions of giant corporations
and enrich those in the legal profession, rather than the actual
inventors. After Zip2, when I realized that receiving a patent
really just meant that you bought a lottery ticket to a lawsuit, I
avoided them whenever possible.

Musk goes on to explain that Tesla collected patents despite his
avowed aversion to them out of a (misplaced, he says) fear that big
car companies would squeeze him out of the electric car business.
Instead he’s found little interest in joining the electric car
marketplace.

Another Elon Musk company, SpaceX, apparently
holds almost no patents. In that case, Musk said filing patents
would be “farcical,” as the company’s main competitors are in
China, he believes “the Chinese would just use them as a recipe
book.”

More
Reason on intellectual property.

h/t Scott F.