Electric
carmaker Tesla announced Thursday it was giving up its patents to "the
open source movement," to help spur electric vehicle technology.
The unusual
move comes with Tesla enjoying huge success, but against a backdrop of
multiplying legal squabbles among technology firms over patents.
"All
our patents belong to you," Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said in a blog
post.
"Yesterday,
there was a wall of Tesla patents in the lobby of our Palo Alto headquarters.
That is no longer the case. They have been removed, in the spirit of the open
source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology."
Musk, an
entrepreneur who made a fortune with the PayPal online payment service and also
heads the space travel firm Space X, said he does not want patents to halt
growth of an important environmental technology.
"We
believe that Tesla, other companies making electric cars, and the world would
all benefit from a common, rapidly-evolving technology platform," he
wrote.
He said
when Tesla was launched, "we felt compelled to create 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."
But he said
this turned out not to be the case.
"We
couldn't have been more wrong," he said.
"The
unfortunate reality is the opposite: electric car programs (or programs for any
vehicle that doesn?t burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to
non-existent, constituting an average of far less than one percent of their
total vehicle sales."
Musk added
that Tesla "will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good
faith, wants to use our technology."
Patent
costs and benefits
Brian Love,
a Santa Clara University law professor, said he has seen a "very positive
reaction" to Tesla's decision.
"There
is an ongoing debate in this country about the costs and benefits patents bring
to small companies," Love told AFP in an email.
"In
his statement, Elon Musk explains that, while he originally thought patents
were worthwhile, he has since come to believe that they generally do more harm
than good."
But Love
said it is not clear if Tesla is in fact ceding all its rights.
"Rather,
it seems to be simply promising not to proactively sue those who enter the
electric car market and use similar technology," he said.
Robert
Stoll, a former US patent commissioner who practices law in Washington, said
that Tesla "must have a good business reason for wanting to freely share
its electric car patents with others."
Stoll told
AFP: " Tesla might be planning to distinguish itself from the competitors
it helps by producing a better product from its longer history in this industry
or by inventing and patenting better electric cars than are available
today."
He added
that the move is not unprecedented and that the US Patent Office has a
mechanism to allow companies to cede their patent rights.
Tesla
earlier this year unveiled plans for a so-called "Gigafactory" for
advanced electric car batteries as part of a plan to move from niche
manufacturer to mass market carmaker.
The company
says it hopes to bring the cost of production down and produce 500,000 cars a
year.
Tesla,
which makes a $75,000 sedan in heavy demand from well-heeled buyers, saw shares
quadruple last year on expectations of surging growth.
Shares in
Tesla dipped 0.46 percent to end at $203.52. The company's market value is
above $25 billion, a figure which suggests investors expect huge growth from
the California firm.
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