Tesla Motors Inc. known for gaining attention with the first electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, has done it again but this time with their patent wall. Yes, Tesla has caught the attention of gaming enthusiasts with their remodeled patent wall.
Who remembers the phrase “CATS: All your base are belong to us?” Well apparently those at the California Headquarters of Tesla Motors Inc. do!
Let’s take a trip back in time to 1992 on the Sega Mega Drive to the poorly English translated arcade side-scrolling shoot ’em up game Zero Wing.
Developed by Toaplan and published by Taito, the player is the lone hero bound to save the universe from an evil force.
Well, thanks to the poorly translated introduction that became a phenomena in game culture and host to tons of internet memes, it was quite entertaining to see it find its way onto the patent wall in the Tesla Headquarters.
Tesla Headquarters Patent Wall – Before
Tesla Headquarters Patent Wall – After
Yes, the phrase is changed up just a bit to apply to the car pioneers but it’s clear of their appreciation for it. The images found their way onto the imgur website where it’s caught a lot of attention.
Why do you ask?
It’s a part of their firm belief of sharing their technology since making it public as stated on their blog here.
“When I started out with my first company, Zip2, I thought patents were a good thing and worked hard to obtain them. And maybe they were good long ago, but too often these days they serve merely to stifle progress, entrench the positions of giant corporations and enrich those in the legal profession, rather than the actual inventors. After Zip2, when I realized that receiving a patent really just meant that you bought a lottery ticket to a lawsuit, I avoided them whenever possible,” said Elon Musk CEO of Telsa Motor Inc.
“At Tesla, however, we felt compelled to create patents out of concern that the big car companies would copy our technology and then use their massive manufacturing, sales and marketing power to overwhelm Tesla. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The unfortunate reality is the opposite: electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn’t burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent, constituting an average of far less than 1% of their total vehicle sales.”
Tesla feels that all companies who are making electric cars all over the world would all benefit from a “common, rapidly-evolving technology platform.”
Technology leadership is not defined by patents, which history has repeatedly shown to be small protection indeed against a determined competitor, but rather by the ability of a company to attract and motivate the world’s most talented engineers.
They strongly believe that applying the open source philosophy to their patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position in this regard.
