Ilon Mask confirmed that patents are free for all
In June 2014, Ilon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors, at a meeting of shareholders said that the company would transfer all Tesla Motors corporate patents for public use.
“Just yesterday, Tesla patents held a wall in the lobby of the headquarters in Palo Alto. No more. They were shot, in the spirit of the open source movement, to promote the technology of electric cars, ”wrote Ilon Musk in a corporate blog .
The only controversial point in the open patent policy was the phrase that Tesla Motors intellectual property could be used for “fair” purposes. This left some uncertainty: what if Tesla Motors will choose who can use patents and who can't.
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Now Ilon Musk has removed all doubts. He explained that patents are available absolutely for everyone without any restrictions.
During the Detroit Motor Show, Ilon Musk gave an interview to the press. Around the third minute on the video, the reporter asked how many automakers took advantage of the Tesla offer.
Mask replied that he could not know this:
- In fact, we do not require any formal negotiations. So they can just take and use them.
- Is there any licensing process? The reporter asked.
- Not. You just use them. I think this is better because we do not need to enter into negotiations and everything. So we do not know. You will probably see in future car models if they decide to use them.
Opening patents, Ilon Mask explained the change of policy. Previously, the company sought to patent unique technologies in order to protect against competition from large automakers. It was assumed that they, too, will begin to massively produce electric cars. “We could not be more wrong,” admits Musk. As reality has shown, concerns are generally not very interested in promoting this technology. Until now, hydrocarbon fuel machines make up 99% or more of the sales of any large group.
In other words, big companies are not responsive to real, revolutionary innovations. They are too focused on business as usual. Ilon Musk realized that Tesla Motors business is threatened not so much by competition from other electric vehicles, as by the absence of this competition, that is, too many gasoline vehicles coming off the conveyors.
It turns out that the discovery of patents only expands the car market and, ultimately, is beneficial for the company itself.
But not everyone agrees with this logic. Some representatives of Wall Street are not at all glad that the company is scattered about intellectual property. For example, a representative of a certain investment firm Technology Equity Strategies in a large article sincerely resents the “irresponsible” behavior of Ilona Mask. He says that patents are very important in the modern high-tech industry, you need to hold on to them, make a profit. They say that a technology company is highly dependent on the protection of its intellectual property, copyright and trade secrets. Without this, there is no survival in brutal capitalist competition.
Well, the future will show who was right. But it is significant that Wall Street can only play a zero-sum game. In their opinion, there must be a winner (the owner of intellectual property) and a loser (without a patent). In principle, they do not understand the logic of Mask, by which you need to help others to win themselves.
“Just yesterday, Tesla patents held a wall in the lobby of the headquarters in Palo Alto. No more. They were shot, in the spirit of the open source movement, to promote the technology of electric cars, ”wrote Ilon Musk in a corporate blog .
The only controversial point in the open patent policy was the phrase that Tesla Motors intellectual property could be used for “fair” purposes. This left some uncertainty: what if Tesla Motors will choose who can use patents and who can't.
')
Now Ilon Musk has removed all doubts. He explained that patents are available absolutely for everyone without any restrictions.
During the Detroit Motor Show, Ilon Musk gave an interview to the press. Around the third minute on the video, the reporter asked how many automakers took advantage of the Tesla offer.
Mask replied that he could not know this:
- In fact, we do not require any formal negotiations. So they can just take and use them.
- Is there any licensing process? The reporter asked.
- Not. You just use them. I think this is better because we do not need to enter into negotiations and everything. So we do not know. You will probably see in future car models if they decide to use them.
Opening patents, Ilon Mask explained the change of policy. Previously, the company sought to patent unique technologies in order to protect against competition from large automakers. It was assumed that they, too, will begin to massively produce electric cars. “We could not be more wrong,” admits Musk. As reality has shown, concerns are generally not very interested in promoting this technology. Until now, hydrocarbon fuel machines make up 99% or more of the sales of any large group.
In other words, big companies are not responsive to real, revolutionary innovations. They are too focused on business as usual. Ilon Musk realized that Tesla Motors business is threatened not so much by competition from other electric vehicles, as by the absence of this competition, that is, too many gasoline vehicles coming off the conveyors.
It turns out that the discovery of patents only expands the car market and, ultimately, is beneficial for the company itself.
But not everyone agrees with this logic. Some representatives of Wall Street are not at all glad that the company is scattered about intellectual property. For example, a representative of a certain investment firm Technology Equity Strategies in a large article sincerely resents the “irresponsible” behavior of Ilona Mask. He says that patents are very important in the modern high-tech industry, you need to hold on to them, make a profit. They say that a technology company is highly dependent on the protection of its intellectual property, copyright and trade secrets. Without this, there is no survival in brutal capitalist competition.
Well, the future will show who was right. But it is significant that Wall Street can only play a zero-sum game. In their opinion, there must be a winner (the owner of intellectual property) and a loser (without a patent). In principle, they do not understand the logic of Mask, by which you need to help others to win themselves.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/376631/
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