In the interest of developing electric cars, Elon Musk will give you his patents if you want them. The chief executive of Tesla Motors, the electric car company, will let competitors use its patents, numbering several hundred, without the fear of triggering a lawsuit. In a blog post Thursday, Mr. Musk notes his reasoning for a decision that would ordinarily leave patent lawyers scratching their heads.<\/p>\n
Namely, that \u201cannual new vehicle production is approaching 100 million per year and the global fleet is approximately 2 billion cars,\u201d he says in the post. \u201cIt is impossible for Tesla to build electric cars fast enough to address the carbon crisis.”<\/p>\n
This decision goes along with the company’s stated goal: showing that an electric car can be every bit as utilitarian and cool as a gasoline-fueled car. \u00a0Musk says patents hinder progress and stand in the way of companies developing electric cars. \u00a0“Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport,” he says in the post. “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.”<\/p>\n
Because so few companies are producing electric cars, Musk is confident that others’ use of its technology will not hurt the Palo Alto-based company. In his view, the competition is not other electric car manufacturers, but rather “the enormous flood of gasoline cars pouring out of the world\u2019s factories every day.”<\/p>\n
At major auto manufacturers, the amount of electric cars produced, or cars that burn no hydrocarbons, totals less than one percent. By opening up its patents, Musk hopes to reverse this trend. Granted, he recognizes that things won’t change overnight. Rather, the move comes more as a symbolic gesture to begin moving an industry toward a spirit of greater cooperation in an effort to begin producing more zero-emission vehicles.<\/p>\n
“Technology leadership is not defined by patents, which history has repeatedly shown to be small protection indeed against a determined competitor, but rather by the ability of a company to attract and motivate the world\u2019s most talented engineers,” Musk says in the post. “We believe that applying the open source philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla\u2019s position in this regard.”<\/p>\n
Musk noted that Tesla will continue to secure patents for its future products so that other companies don’t take the idea and patent it themselves, according to Forbes. Still, future patents will also be available for free.<\/p>\n
In the interest of developing electric cars, Elon Musk will give you his patents if you want them. The chief executive of Tesla Motors, the electric car company, will let competitors use its patents, numbering several hundred, without the fear … Continue reading ![\"Electric](\"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Electric-Car-300x200.jpg\")
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