Wired.com has a piece about Elon Musk's revolutionary proposals for a high-speed transit system capable of carrying passengers cross-country in less than an hour.  Buried in the article is this interesting tidbit:

That lines up with a few responses Musk made on Twitter when asked about patenting the technology. “I really hate patents unless critical to company survival,” Musk Tweeted. “Will publish Hyperloop as open source.” When asked about partners, Musk said he’s “happy to work with the right partners. Must truly share philosophical goal of breakthrough tech done fast & w/o wasting money on BS.”

Musk is one of the entrepreneurs behind Paypal.com, Tesla Motors and SpaceX, and is someone who is at the forefront of technological development.  But mass transit may be an industry in which the ability to quickly and effectively build infrastructure and obtain appropriate permits and licenses outweighs the need to be protective of specific technological advances. Whether Musk's nonchalant attitude toward intellectual property rights in this instance will translate well into other industries remains to be seen.