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A company acquiring patents is not evil in and of itself; in some cases they're practically forced to do it, unless they want to risk someone else doing it firs
by runeks 9y ago
A company acquiring patents is not evil in and of itself; in some cases they're practically forced to do it, unless they want to risk someone else doing it first. Tesla acquired plenty of patents, but they chose to release them with an anyone-can-use clause, meaning their effort actually amounted to patent-freeing some stuff, rather than patenting it.
- DarkKomunalec 9y ago"in some cases they're practically forced to do it, unless they want to risk someone else doing it first." Incorrect. Publicizing something constitutes prior art, rendering any subsequent patents on that void, eliminating the risk of 'someone else doing it first'. The only way to use patents defensively is as ammo for counter-suits.
- greglindahl 9y agoTesla is actually offering a patent truce, not anyone-can-use. This is roughly the same as the cross-licensing agreements you see between big industry players, except that Tesla is offering it to everyone. It's likely Tesla is still applying for more patents; it would be foolish for them to not do so, given the current patent law.