Toyota has 24,000 patents for hybrid automobile technology. Yesterday, they announced that they will no longer charge royalties for any of this. They are putting all their hybrid car IP into the public domain.
This was featured on the 7 o'clock national news. I thought: "those people must be crazy! Why are they doing that? I can see lowering the cost of royalties, but why make it free??" On the news a Toyota spokesman said they are doing it for the benefit of mankind, to reduce pollution and help avert global warming. I did not believe that for a second. Today I read a news account of this which makes more sense: https://www.autoblog.com/2019/04/03/toyota-to-share-hybrid-patents/ They want to sell the hybrid machinery itself to other carmakers. The motors, control units and so on. Not just the IP; the machinery. They are making the patents free to encourage the use of this technology. They must think they are so far ahead, they can make money selling the actual machines. Other companies will find that cheaper than developing their own versions. This also makes sense because Toyota thinks hybrid technology may not last much longer. They have to sell it now, and cash on it now, because in another 20 years it will be replaced with pure electric propulsion. That was one of the things the news report said last night. This relates to cold fusion and the business strategy that might be used to make money with it. It is a strategy only a large company like Toyota could use. I have never heard of this strategy, or thought of it myself. It is clever! I may discuss this in messages here. Or, you can read my thoughts about this starting here: https://www.lenr-forum.com/forum/thread/5654-brillouin-energy-corporation-bec-updates/?postID=108407#post108407
