Tesla Motors and the Rise of Non-ICT Patent Pledges

This week, electric car developer Tesla Motors made news by publicly announcing that it will no longer 'initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.' Tesla's pledge has met with both praise and cynicism, with some applauding the company's ostensible desire to spur the development of eco-friendly technology, while others have dismissed the announcement as a mere publicity stunt lacking in real effect. Whatever the merits of Tesla's patent pledge, it is only the most recent in a growing series of voluntary public commitments made by patent holders to refrain from exercising their patent rights to the fullest extent of the law. To date, most of these pledges have been made by companies in the information and communications technology ('ICT') sector. For example, in 2004-05, a handful of firms publicly announced that they would not assert patents against use of the open source Linux operating system. Some large patent holders have issued blanket assurances covering substantial portfolios of patents and products, including IBM's public commitment not to assert approximately 500 patents against open source software products, and Google's more recent 'Open Patent Non-Assertion Pledge.' As I have written elsewhere,6 these pledges are intended to assure the market that the pledged patents will not be used to disrupt or hinder the adoption of market-wide interoperability standards or open technology platforms. But, as the Tesla pledge demonstrates, patent pledges are also becoming popular outside the ICT sector. Below are examples of a few recent patent pledges made by companies in non-ICT industries ranging from GM seeds to household electrical meters.