According to Musk, Tesla accumulated patents “out of concern that the big car companies would copy our technology and then use their massive manufacturing, sales and marketing power to overwhelm Tesla.” That never happened — not even close. As Musk points out, the big car companies are simply not interested in building niche cars that don’t burn at least some hydrocarbons. He also notes that with new car production approaching 100 million units a year, Tesla’s ability to address the carbon emissions crisis on its own is nonexistent.
What Musk does not say in his blog post is whether Tesla will require a license to use its technology, and if it does what such a license will cost. Are any patents on the company’s battery technology also included? After all, Tesla’s plans to build a Giga-factory to produce batteries could suffer a setback if the company doesn’t have some intellectual property to put up as collateral for loans to build the $5 billion plant.
Here is how Musk concludes the post:
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’s most talented engineers. We believe that applying the open source philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position in this regard.
Some observers have said that Tesla is more of a technology company than a car company, and if there is one thing that technology companies are always looking for it is talented engineers. If Tesla can’t change the world by building electric cars, maybe it can change the world by developing new technologies that will be adopted by the manufacturing giants that can.
Tesla’s shares traded down about 0.2% on Thursday afternoon, at $204.20 in a 52-week range of $95.12 to $265.00.
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