Friday, June 13, 2014

Tesla redecorates its corporate HQ.

In a news release geekily entitled "All Our Patent Are Belong To You" Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla has redecorated its lobby, taking down its "wall of patents."  

This has been widely publicized as a move by Tesla to renounce patent protection for its technology, in an effort to spur competition and grow the marketplace for electric cars.  As Musk notes in the news release, Tesla's main competition is not other electric car companies, but companies that produce gasoline-powered cars. 

Based on the current price of a Tesla Model S sedan, which exceeds $60K even after all the government incentives are factored in, the gasoline-powered cars that are competing with Tesla are things like the BMW 7-series, Mercedes E-Class, and Lexus LS sedans.  But I digress.

The thing that caught my eye was Musk's pledge:  
Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.
The obvious question is: what does it mean, "in good faith?"

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