"My Man!" Elon Musk Offers "Free Range/Open Source" On Tesla's 'Lectric Patents: Not Entirely O/T

Okay -- some great "Tangent-Related News Friday" stuff: anyone who has really followed Elon. . . knows that his considerable genius lies in upending the conventional wisdom. Consider (while putting yourself back in the relevant time-frame, and "Ordinary Joe or Jane" mindset):

• PayPal (mid 1990s) -- who'd guess people would trust ordinary gray boxes, with green screens, to make their real live cash purchases happen -- who thought secure internet payment services could be engineered? Elon. That's who.

• SpaceX -- (early 2000s) space-tourists?! C'mon!

• And now, ultra fast, ultra sexy, and ultra luxurious 'lectric cars, running on laptop batteries -- by the thousands -- in tightly packed, liquid cooled floating arrays?! Preposterous, right? 

I know. Crazy, right? But wait -- each became multi-billion dollar category creators/killers. So pharmaceutical patent-holders ought to think long and hard -- about this, his latest move. Of course he wants to drive adoption of his tech -- to supplant gas engines -- of course. But, probe a little deeper, and think about it, in branded drug space. What if, for example, real fundamental patent pooling came to pass, for the not-yet developed world's high burden (i.e., low profit margin) diseases? I know there are some small noises, like this -- Merck is even in on one. But it is a weak effort, compared to Elon Musk's give-away. Very weak. Let's read a little Bloomberg reporting, here:

. . . .According to Musk, Tesla made this gesture to—once again—try to nudge the rest of the automotive market along. Tesla’s Model S has proved that there’s massive interest in a well-made, fun-to-drive electric car. Still, Tesla is barely making a dent in the massive auto market. Musk wants to promote a more dramatic shift toward electric cars, so he will do what he can to accelerate things. “I don’t think people quite appreciate the gravity of what is going on [with regard to global warming] or just how much inertia the climate has,” Musk said during a conference call. “We really need to do something. It would be shortsighted if we try to hold these things close to our vest. . . .”

From a competition standpoint, Musk considers Tesla’s place secure. “What we are doing is a modest thing,” he said. “You want to be innovating so fast that you invalidate your prior patents, in terms of what really matters. It’s the velocity of innovation that matters.” As long as Tesla keeps inventing and pushing the limits of the technology, it will remain of ahead of rivals.

Musk believes that opening up the patents around the charging technology could lead to important partnerships. He has talked this week to executives from BMW about sharing the cost of building recharging stations and creating a common infrastructure. . . .

He is a quintessential Renaissance genius. I'd bet there is a lesson here for every industry -- from oil & gas, to tech, to yes. . . pharma. Now go have a funky fun Friday -- I know I am (right now!) -- out to the park, to hear the Blues. Playing "long client lunch" hooky, for certain -- a clear and flawless 70 degree Colorado style sky here! Whoosh! Later, homes.