ARTICLE · 02 JANUARY 2024

Open Source Patents – Too Good To Be True?

Venner Shipley

Explore more from Venner Shipley

CAP-XX and Tesla have been embroiled in patent litigation in the US since 2019, with CAP-XX originally suing Maxwell Technologies (a wholly owned subsidiary of Tesla) and Tesla subsequently suing CAP-XX.

United KingdomIntellectual Property

CAP-XX and Tesla have been embroiled in patent litigation in the US since 2019, with CAP-XX originally suing Maxwell Technologies (a wholly owned subsidiary of Tesla) and Tesla subsequently suing CAP-XX. The first case concluded on 15 December 2023, with a jury in Delaware finding CAP-XX's cases to be invalid.

As the dust settles on this first chapter, we look at how CAP-XX and Tesla got to this point. We also ask, what does this mean for Tesla's open source philosophy?

"All Our Patent Are Belong To You"

In 2014 Elon Musk wrote a blog post on the Tesla website with the above title. (To clarify, that is not a typo, but a reference to a meme.) The post announced that henceforth Tesla was adopting an open source philosophy and would "not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology".

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