Elon Musk’s Open Innovation: Tesla, Intellectual Property, and Climate Change

Rimmer, Matthew

doi:10.1007/978-981-13-2155-9_19

Matthew Rimmer²

3563 Accesses
3 Citations
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Abstract

This chapter considers Elon Musk and his company Tesla, and evaluates their statements in respect of intellectual property, open innovation, and climate change. It is worth situating the story in the context of the growing literature on intellectual property and clean technologies. This paper considers Tesla’s shifting strategies in respect of patent law, policy, and practice. The work explores Tesla’s embrace of an open source philosophy, and the motivations behind this business strategy. The chapter analyses the larger issues about business development relating to electric vehicles and clean technologies. It examines how Tesla’s rivals have responded—particularly looking at Toyota Motors. This paper concludes by considering Tesla in light of larger initiatives in respect of clean technologies, renewable energy and climate change. Of particular note is sustainable transportation; the development of a Gigafactory; Elon Musk’s complementary work at SolarCity in promoting solar technologies; and the big battery project in South Australia. The chapter concludes with a consideration of Elon Musk’s advocacy for the adoption and implementation of the Paris Agreement 2015.

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Notes

1.
Tesla Motors (2012).
2.
Ibid.
3.
Ibid.
4.
Ibid.
5.
Vance (2015).
6.
Telsa Motors, Executives: Elon Musk, http://www.teslamotors.com/executives. Accessed 1 May 2018.
7.
SolarCity, http://www.solarcity.com/company/team. Accessed 1 May 2018.
8.
Tesla Motors (2014).
9.
Tesla Motors (2012).
10.
Ibid.
11.
Musk (2014).
12.
Ibid.
13.
Ibid.
14.
Ibid.
15.
Ibid.
16.
Menell and Tran (2014).
17.
Brown (2013).
18.
Derclaye (2010).
19.
Sommer (2013).
20.
Karachalios et al. (2010).
21.
Lane (2011).
22.
Maskus and Okediji (2012), Sarnoff (2013), Reichman et al. (2014), Cimoli et al. (2014), Allan et al. (2014).
23.
Contreras and Jacob (2017).
24.
Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, opened for signature 12 December 2015 (entered into force 4 November 2016) (in UNFCCC, Report of the Conference of the Parties on its Twenty-First Session, Addendum, UN Doc FCCC/CP/2015/10/Add.1, 29 Jan 2016).
25.
Tesla Motors (2012).
26.
Ibid.
27.
Ibid.
28.
Shah (2014).
29.
Ibid.
30.
Ibid.
31.
Tesla Motors (2012).
32.
Ibid.
33.
Ibid.
34.
Ibid.
35.
Ibid.
36.
Ibid.
37.
Ibid.
38.
Ibid.
39.
Musk (2014).
40.
Ibid.
41.
Ibid.
42.
Ibid.
43.
Ibid.
44.
Jones (2013).
45.
Loveday (2013).
46.
Ibid.
47.
Ibid.
48.
Ibid.
49.
Tesla Motors Inc. v pointSET Corporation, United States District Court for the Northern District of California (2013), http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/ca/TESLAsuit.pdf.
50.
Ibid.
51.
Ibid.
52.
Ibid.
53.
Ibid.
54.
Ibid.
55.
Nikola Corporation v. Tesla Inc., United States District Court for the District of Arizona (2018), Case 2:18-cv-01344-GMS; O’Kane (2018), and Guess (2018).
56.
Rimmer (2011).
57.
Kamdar (2014).
58.
Ibid.
59.
Ibid.
60.
Defensive Patent License, http://www.defensivepatentlicense.com/.
61.
Tucker (2014).
62.
Kamdar (2014).
63.
Greenberg (2014).
64.
Ibid.
65.
See Rimmer (2006).
66.
Julie Samuels quoted in Finley (2014).
67.
Ibid.
68.
Totaro (2014).
69.
Ibid.
70.
Ibid.
71.
Ibid.
72.
Frick (2014).
73.
Ibid.
74.
Lobel (2013).
75.
Masnick (2015).
76.
Ibid.
77.
Tesla (2015).
78.
Ibid.
79.
Ibid.
80.
Lambert (2017a, b), and M. Ozbek, B. Pierquet and A. Baglino (inventors) and Tesla Motors Inc. (applicant), ‘Scalable and Flexible Cell-Based Energy Storage System’, United States Patent Application Publication No. US 2017/0093156 A1, Publication Date: 30 March 2017.
81.
Tesla, Inc. v Tripp (2018) 3:18-cv-00296; and Wong (2018).
82.
Martin (2014).
83.
Musk (2014).
84.
Richard Stallman, https://stallman.org/.
85.
Lessig (1999, 2001, 2004, 2008).
86.
Moody (2004).
87.
Wiener (2006).
88.
Ibid., 302–303.
89.
Rimmer (2011).
90.
UNFCCC Climate Technology Centre and Network, http://unfccc.int/ttclear/templates/render_cms_page?TEM_tcn and http://www.unep.org/climatechange/ctcn/. Accessed 1 May 2018.
91.
Green XChange, http://greenxchange.cc/. Accessed 1 May 2018.
92.
Eco-Patent Commons, http://www.wbcsd.org/work-program/capacity-building/eco-patent-commons.aspx. Accessed 1 May 2018.
93.
Contreras et al. (2018).
94.
WIPO GREEN, https://www3.wipo.int/wipogreen/en/about/. Accessed 1 May 2018.
95.
Lane (2014).
96.
Ibid.
97.
Ibid.
98.
Tapscott and Williams (2010).
99.
Ibid.
100.
Ibid.
101.
Ibid.
102.
Rifkin (2014).
103.
Ibid.
104.
Ibid.
105.
Ibid., 24.
106.
Ibid., 24.
107.
Ibid., 226–231.
108.
Ibid., 231.
109.
Gans (2014).
110.
Musk (2014).
111.
McGrath (2014).
112.
Davis (2010).
113.
Tesla Motors (2012).
114.
Associated Press (2014).
115.
Seba (2014).
116.
Ibid., 102.
117.
Ibid., 103.
118.
Ibid., 104.
119.
Ibid., 111.
120.
Ibid., 126.
121.
Ibid., 127.
122.
Ibid., 7.
123.
Ibid., 9.
124.
Ibid., 9.
125.
Ibid., 8.
126.
Ibid., 8.
127.
Associated Press (2014).
128.
Taylor (2014).
129.
Winton (2014).
130.
Oremus (2014).
131.
Ibid.
132.
Ibid.
133.
Ibid.
134.
Ibid.
135.
Ibid.
136.
Moyer (2014).
137.
Ibid.
138.
Lee (2014).
139.
Ibid.
140.
Ibid.
141.
Branson (2014).
142.
Ibid.
143.
Ibid.
144.
Ibid.
145.
Ibid.
146.
Ibid.
147.
Branson (2013).
148.
Ibid.
149.
Ibid.
150.
Ibid.
151.
Ibid.
152.
Perlow (2014).
153.
Ibid.
154.
Ibid.
155.
Ibid.
156.
Bessen (2014).
157.
Ibid.
158.
Ibid.
159.
Ibid.
160.
Contreras and Jacob (2017).
161.
Vertinsky (2017).
162.
Bessen et al. (2011–2012).
163.
Rimmer (2015).
164.
Toyota (2015b). For coverage, see BBC News (2015).
165.
Michio Kaku is a futurist perhaps best known for his popular science books—such as Kaku (1998), and Kaku (2012).
166.
Kaku (2015).
167.
Ibid.
168.
Ibid.
169.
Carter (2015).
170.
Ibid.
171.
Ibid.
172.
Ibid.
173.
Ibid.
174.
Toyota (2015a).
175.
Ibid.
176.
Ibid.
177.
Lane (2015).
178.
Ibid.
179.
Ibid.
180.
Ibid.
181.
Ibid.
182.
Ibid.
183.
Ibid.
184.
Ibid.
185.
Ibid.
186.
Yoney (2013).
187.
Debord (2015).
188.
GM Authority (2015).
189.
Musk (2014).
190.
Ibid.
191.
Ibid.
192.
Schwarzenegger (2009), Sperling and Gordon (2009).
193.
Ibid. vii.
194.
Ibid., vii.
195.
Ibid., vii.
196.
Tittel (2014).
197.
Ruffalo (2014).
198.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2014).
199.
Ibid.
200.
Ibid.
201.
Ibid.
202.
The White House, Fact Sheet: President Obama’s Plan to Make the U.S. the First Country to Put One Million Advanced Vehicles on the Road http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/other/fact-sheet-one-million-advanced-technology-vehicles.pdf (Website available in the Obama presidency).
203.
Obama (2011).
204.
Keane (2013).
205.
Obama (2014).
206.
Ibid.
207.
Ibid.
208.
Tesla Motors, Supercharger Network, http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger. Accessed 1 May 2018.
209.
Huntley (2014).
210.
Ying and Yang (2014).
211.
Tesla Motors (2014).
212.
Tesla Motors, Gigafactory, http://www.teslamotors.com/sites/default/files/blog_attachments/gigafactory.pdf.
213.
Hull (2014).
214.
Wunderman (2014).
215.
Tesla (2014).
216.
Lambert (2017a, b).
217.
McKay (2014).
218.
SolarCity Corporation (2013).
219.
Ibid.
220.
Ibid.
221.
Ibid.
222.
Ibid.
223.
Ibid.
224.
Musk et al. (2014).
225.
Ibid.
226.
Ibid.
227.
Ibid.
228.
Ibid.
229.
Seba (2014).
230.
Diesendorf (2014).
231.
Ibid., 44.
232.
Gore (2014).
233.
Ibid.
234.
Ibid.
235.
Ibid.
236.
Ibid.
237.
Ibid.
238.
Australian Associated Press (2017).
239.
Ibid.
240.
Slezak (2018).
241.
Carey (2018).
242.
Smith (2017).
243.
Ibid.
244.
Canton (2015, 47).
245.
Gore, Cohen, Shenk, Actual Films, Participant Media, Paramount Pictures (2017), and Gore (2017).
246.
Musk and others (2017).
247.
Ibid.
248.
Ibid.
249.
Ibid.
250.
Ibid.
251.
Ibid.
252.
ABC News (2017)
253.
Ibid.

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International Agreements and Treaties

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Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Matthew Rimmer

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Matthew Rimmer

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Rimmer, M. (2018). Elon Musk’s Open Innovation: Tesla, Intellectual Property, and Climate Change. In: Rimmer, M. (eds) Intellectual Property and Clean Energy. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2155-9_19

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2155-9_19
Published: 26 October 2018
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