Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

All Our Patent Are Belong To You

teslamotors.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 328 posts

Re: All Our Patent Are Belong To You

#41

Post by chc »

McGlockenshire wrote: post #7
smackfu wrote: post #2

"Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology." What exactly does that little "in good faith" clause mean in there?

Until clarified, it kind of reads like "independently came up with the same idea, but did not research patents or reach out to us for licensing first."

That definitely doesn't sound right to me, because it says "wants to use our technology." That implies awareness that one is using Tesla's technology, because otherwise this promise wouldn't mean anything since people who don't believe they're using Tesla's technology wouldn't think they fall under it anyway.

I am having trouble working out what it does mean, though. Based on the rest of the article, my best guess is "Does not act in a predatory manner toward other carmakers, such as initiating patent lawsuits of their own." Basically, I think Musk is trying to say that Tesla are willing to cooperate toward the goal of making electric cars a bigger presence if you are, but they don't want people using their patents in conjunction with underhanded tactics to try and monopolize the market.

Re: All Our Patent Are Belong To You

#42

Post by thibautx »

notdonspaulding wrote: post #10

These are big words, even coming from the extreme underdog in the auto industry. What exactly is Elon committing to here? Is Tesla planning on releasing any design documentation, or technical specifications or manufacturing process information? It's great that they won't enforce patents in an effort to not stifle innovation, but do they plan on taking any actions that will encourage innovation ?

Since many auto manufacturing companies doing R&D and Tesla, having already created technologies good enough to bring to market, there will definitely be incentive for taking action. Tesla has already created technologies to run cars that rival (performance) gasoline cars, and access to those technologies/designs will accelerate their own EV efforts.

Re: All Our Patent Are Belong To You

#44

Post by kevinchen »

mwsherman wrote: post #39

There is no legal covenant here. I imagine Tesla’s definition of “good faith” is “we evaluate on a case by case basis”. Which amounts to “if we like you” and “we reserve the right”. If they wanted these patents to be open source, they would license them explicitly.

They would be on the receiving end of a PR shitstorm if they tried to enforce their patents after publishing this.

Re: All Our Patent Are Belong To You

#46

Post by peter_l_downs »

Arjuna wrote: post #27

Assuming that this search represents nearly all of them, that is approximately 133 patents: https://www.google.com/?tbm=pts&gws_rd=ssl#q=inassignee:%22T... Edit: Nice catch, peter_l_downs ... I didn't realize that the estimated search result of 6,430 would be off by such a large factor.

Interestingly, try navigating through – here's the link to page 14: https://www.google.com/?tbm=pts&gws_rd=ssl#q=inassignee%3A%2.... I remember reading or being told that Google only estimates how many results there are, and refines the estimate as you navigate further down the list. As of page 14 there seem to be only 133 results; a far cry from 6,430.

Re: All Our Patent Are Belong To You

#47

Post by ScottBurson »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #32
hengheng wrote: post #3

> Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology. I'm not familiar with US legislation, but from my perspective this is just Musk on his soap-box making a statement. It's not something I can rely on while building a business that possibly (!) infringes one of Tesla's patents. They may retract their statement and reconsider at any time, especially when times get…

Hopefully they'll issue a more formal statement, but even if they don't, this is grounds for estoppel. Beyond that, anyone who wants something signed and in writing could likely drop a note to Tesla for it when doing their due diligence.

For those unfamiliar with estoppel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoppel#Reliance-based_estoppe...

That would clearly apply in this case.

Re: All Our Patent Are Belong To You

#48

Post by peterarmstrong »

fuddle wrote: post #38
colanderman wrote: post #33

FFS, change the title back to what it was submitted with! "All Our Patent Are Belong To You" makes no sense out of context. At least the original title said something about Tesla Motors.

Mr Musk, I expected better grammar from you.

It's a meme: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base

Re: All Our Patent Are Belong To You

#49

Post by gtirloni »

hengheng wrote: post #3

> Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology. I'm not familiar with US legislation, but from my perspective this is just Musk on his soap-box making a statement. It's not something I can rely on while building a business that possibly (!) infringes one of Tesla's patents. They may retract their statement and reconsider at any time, especially when times get…

Are YOU going to built a business around Tesla's patents? If so, you just got a very credible hint that Tesla might be interested in talking to you. Isn't that great?

Sometimes I feel doing business in the US is liking playing with your toys while your mom (courts) are watching. No wonder the legal industry is so huge. It has ingrained in people's mind that other people's word are worth nothing. I wish we could look past that... go talk to the guy (or his whatever-department that handles licensing matters). If you're really interested in starting this business, it won't take much of your time.

Post reply on HN