Tesla Releases Patents: Who Stands To Benefit?

Tesla Motors, the electric car company run by Elon Musk, made a huge announcement earlier this week, saying that they will allow other car manufacturers to use some of the technology that goes into their electric vehicles, all in the name of putting more electric cars on the road.

What Tesla is doing is opening the patents that protect their technology to other players in the market. In a blog post on the official company blog, Tesla Founder and CEO Elon Musk said,“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.”

Some are hailing Musk as a hero, others see this move as strange. However, his motivation behind this is clearly to get more electric vehicles on the road, as fast as possible.

Dana Hall of the San Jose Mercury News quoted Elon Musk on Twitter and it’s clear that Musk is somewhat motivated in his decision making, by concerns with climate change. Musk reportedly said, “I don’t quite think people appreciate the urgency. Or the inertia,” referring again to climate change.

Some wonder if this is simply a brash corporate move. The speculation is, if there are more electric vehicles on the road that run off of Tesla supercharger stations, essentially Tesla would have made their technology standard, a move that would likely pay off financially.

We will keep you updated on this story as we find out in the coming days and weeks who makes use of tesla’s technology and what they do with it.

What do you think of Musk’s idea to open up his technolgy to other parties?