Why did Tesla patent this?

[Cosmacelf]

https://electrek.co/2019/02/01/tesla-patent-battery-cell/

This is the first time I’ve seen Tesla make battery IP publicly available. Isn’t this extremely valuable? Why let the world copy this work?

 

[ewoodrick]

A) It will allow Tesla to attempt to gain royalties
B) It protects Tesla against others who may file a similar patent.

 

[Vitold]

US is first to file system. Since research is being done by third party leaks are bound to occur.

In my opinion there is too much cobalt in such battery to be interesting to Tesla anyway.

 

[Vitold]

US is first to file system. Since research is being done by third party leaks are bound to occur.

In my opinion there is too much cobalt in such battery to be interesting to Tesla anyway.

 

[Dre78]

Isn’t this extremely valuable? Why let the world copy this work?

Elon Musk on Twitter Exciting to see all the new electric vehicles coming to market! We created Tesla to accelerate a sustainable future & it’s happening!

Elon Musk on Twitter Our true competition is not the small trickle of non-Tesla electric cars being produced, but rather the enormous flood of gasoline cars pouring out of the world’s factories every day

Elon Musk on Twitter All our patent are belong to you (with requisite AYBABTU gif, and link to 2014 blog post to make patents publicly available)

Save the Electric Vehicle, save the World.

 

[Uncle Paul]

While Tesla shares freely their patents with other manufacturers, they publish these patents to show others the way.

If another company patents this technology first, then they can prevent Tesla from using it on their own production.

Classic example is when Indian was suffering competitively from the far superior clutch system on Harley Davidsons. Indian patented Harleys technology and filed suit to prevent Harley from continuing to produce the design Harley themselves had invented. Almost put Harley out of business.

Tesla need to patent their new stuff to allow them to keep producing them.

 

[OPRCE]

It is for an NMC chemistry not used so far in Tesla's all-NCA production vehicles, which may enable faster charging/lower costs in future, thus they need to protect that option and not be cut out by any competitor. Relevant patents in hand equal bargaining power in any dispute over the matter.