Has Toyota turned Tesla with its latest ‘open’ patent pledge? Not quite.

Source: Chandler Cruttenden /Unsplash

Toyota’s announcement this week that it will grant royalty-free licences to almost 24,000 “vehicle-electrification” patents has, expectedly, drawn comparisons to Tesla’s ‘opening’ of its patent portfolio several years back.

In a June 2014 blog post entitled ‘All Our Patent Are Belong To You’, Tesla founder Elon Musk said that the electric…