Drill baby drill?

[sid]

As I person who has a dozen patents, I need to remind you that patents expire. No patent is good for more than 20 years (17 years in US). They cannot be renewed. Once they expire, anyone can use the technology free of charge. If you don't use the patent, you lose money. A corporation probably wouldn't sit on a patent because they would lose a lot of money.

[PaleMelanesian]

Originally Posted by Odin

Your explanation has nothing to do with anything-
chevron (a company with a major history of anti anything not oil) holds majority share of NiMH battery pattens/ many company's have tried to buy rights to produce these batteries for electric cars/ Cheveron has said NO every single time even though many have tried.

This isn't marry magdalen in a grilled cheese sandwich this is monopolizing a market, Which by US law is illegal. They are breaking the law, end of story.
try using google to look at the track records of these company's, then defend them.

Originally Posted by sid

As I person who has a dozen patents, I need to remind you that patents expire. No patent is good for more than 20 years (17 years in US). They cannot be renewed. Once they expire, anyone can use the technology free of charge. If you don't use the patent, you lose money. A corporation probably wouldn't sit on a patent because they would lose a lot of money.

This one happens to be true. There's a reason today's hybrids are using the problematic many-little-batteries-strung-together format. They are unable to legally use larger NIMH's.

I know, it's Wikipedia, but with lots of external references.
Patent encumbrance of large automotive NiMH batteries - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The patents are due to expire soon, but advances in Li-Ion chemistries will make it largely irrelevant.

[Odin]

Originally Posted by sid

As I person who has a dozen patents, I need to remind you that patents expire. No patent is good for more than 20 years (17 years in US). They cannot be renewed. Once they expire, anyone can use the technology free of charge. If you don't use the patent, you lose money. A corporation probably wouldn't sit on a patent because they would lose a lot of money.

yes they end but not till 2015- between 2003 and then you'd be unable to find a single battery sold by chevron that could be used in an EV- several company's have tried suing them to try and purchase batteries but no luck-
Even the inventor Stanford R. Ovshinsky said in an interview
"I think we at ECD made a mistake of having a joint venture with an oil company, frankly speaking. And I think it's not a good idea to go into business with somebody whose strategies would put you out of business, rather than building the business."

The Energy Roadmap - The Edison of our Age: Stan Ovshinsky and the Future of Energy [Video Interview Part 1]
interview-

[SentraSE-R]

Too true. This article details the demise of electric trains in the Bay Area.

There was also another player in the demise of the Key System and other city railways nationwide: General Motors. Between 1936 and 1950 General Motors, along with Firestone and Standard Oil of California, bought out electric train systems in nearly 50 cities—including Los Angeles, New York, Detroit and St. Louis—through a holding company called National City Lines, and replaced those trains with buses.