Toyota opens the door

Toyota’s opening the door, making available thousands of hydrogen fuel cell patents royalty free. Announced on January 5th at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, this Toyota initiative will spur development and introduction of innovative fuel cell technologies around the world. Toyota will invite royalty-free use of approximately 5,680 fuel cell related patents held globally, including critical technologies developed for the new Toyota Mirai. The list includes approximately 1,970 patents related to fuel cell stacks, 290 associated with high-pressure hydrogen tanks, 3,350 related to fuel cell system software control and 70 patents related to hydrogen production and supply.

At Toyota we have always had an open policy regarding use of its intellectual property, allowing licensing of patents by third parties that pay appropriate usage fees. By allowing royalty-free use of FCV-related patent licenses, we are going one step further as it aims to promote the widespread use of FCVs and actively contribute to the realization of a hydrogen-based society. We hope that our action will help foster a shared awareness that companies should collaborate rather than compete when it comes to popularizing socially significant technologies and products, which could also provide momentum to the popularization of FCVs.