I noted with interest the recent news that Elon Musk has released the design patents for the Tesla electric car into the public domain. This is Big News for electric car makers everywhere.
Mainstream media seems to have given this little attention, but it is the equivalent of Bill Gates releasing Windows 98, way back in (you guessed it) 1998, and saying to the whole computer world; "Ok, now we've done this, we are going to let you use all our programmes and designs for Windows 98 for free"
Car makers are now able to take Tesla's designs and use and develop them however they like...for free!!
Why would someone do that? Well, There's a few possibilities. How about these?
1. Elon Musk is a billionaire. He developed PayPal and sold it for many, many Pesos, so now he can afford to just give away stuff.
OR
2.He is rich enough, so now he can afford to be a philanthropist and help others.
OR
3.The patents are old and about to run out, so why not look good and give them away...good publicity!
WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!
But I can see why you're mistaken....let me explain.
1. Elon Musk is a billionaire...you don't get there by giving stuff away...unless you are going to get back a lot more than you gave away, in return.
2.Giving away patents is not an act of philanthropy. Giving away millions of bucks is philanthropy; Warren Buffett, at one point richer than Bill Gates, has given away HALF of his Billion dollars. That is philanthropy.
3. Even if the patents are old, they can be renewed, or sold. Musk does not need good publicity, he has half a dozen projects on the boil, not least of which is supplying the International Space Station with his own rocket.
No, there is a good reason (in MY mind and please remember, this is only MY opinion), that a smart man like Elon Musk does a seemingly foolish thing like this, and I am going to have to talk about Richard Branson to explain it.
Branson has been around since the early 1970s. When he launched Virgin Records, with Mike Oldfields' Tubular Bells as his labels' first album, Richard Branson already had half a dozen smaller entrepreneurial ventures under his belt. When you look back, though, it seems like everything up to and including Virgin Records, was aimless meandering on his part. This is because soon after, the Virgin brand became inextricably linked with transport. Outside the United kingdom, we have only heard of Virgin Airlines, but before that were Virgin Mini-cabs and Virgin Rail.
Richard Branson decided that people would tolerate fewer frills on their transport if it got them there cheaper.
Richard Branson is a great believer in finding existing systems that people use a lot, and finding ways to do it cheaper. As a result, he has gradually built an empire that is based around transport, until it reached a level where it is so big, and so stable, that he can now step up a level and take on a high-risk, high-cost venture like Virgin Galactic, and build a budget space travel system. The big thing in this equation is reaching the "big enough to afford it" level. It's what I call "critical mass".
If Richard Bransons' Virgin Galactic, never makes ONE cent of profit, he will still be ok, because his businesses around the world are SO BIG, that they can carry that kind of loss. They are above "critical mass". They are big enough to survive being hit by a financial loss in Virgin Galactic. It has taken Branson a long time to get there, but he is now able to do original things in business, instead of just refining existing systems.
Elon Musk has reached that point a lot quicker than the founder and CEO of Virgin. This is in part because Musk has had the advantage of a computer industry that is expanding like a supernova, while he is himself a clever computer guy, and also because he is an original thinker instead of a "refiner", like Branson. When Musk made his billion, he immediately stepped sideways and took on a totally different project. He bought Tesla, a struggling electric car company, but he also got into the space race, and won the contract to supply the International Space Station with his cleverly thought out Space X Dragon capsule, and this is where the similarities to Richard Branson come in.
Most people think of space capsules as transportation for men, or as ways of getting satellites or supplies into space. The Space Shuttle could do all three, but was hideously expensive. Musk looked at the concept, and instead of seeing a car, or a truck....he saw a dual-cab pick-up truck. Big enough for a bunch of people, or able to carry a ton of stuff.. And you can re-use it by putting it on a reusable rocket. He found a way to "refine an existing system"
So what does this have to do with the Tesla patents?
Well, when the Tesla patents were released to everyone, it also meant that Tesla itself could use them, and the improvements that other people made to them. So when another inventor improves on a Tesla design for free, I think that Tesla can also use that improvement, without having to spend a cent on research themselves. Of course Tesla will still do their own research, but if 100 others are working on the same idea, then Mr Musk suddenly has a research department that is much bigger than it used to be.
Elon Musk has found a way to refine the patent system to his own benefit, and I think that the next Tesla will be seriously amazing.
Let us see if I'm right.
Thanks for bearing with me....
Makes sense... I like how you think
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