Volvo Gave Away the Most Important Design They Ever Patented

Seat belts work. I once spent several minutes held upside down by one, after the car I was riding in rolled onto it&#x27;s roof. Everything loose in the car ended up on the headliner -- change, jackets, crusty old french fry bits...<p>BTW: You are almost certainly not strong enough to support yourself by one hand while you unbuckle. But falling down to the roof <i>after</i> the wreck is far better than being thrown from the car <i>during</i> the wreck.

The article is a little disingenuous.<p>There aren&#x27;t two options for a patent like this (horde it or give it away freely).<p>The other option is to out-license the patent to your competitors for a fee, say $5. The other car manufacturers can speak to the additional safety offered, customers can seek those types of cars out (and are likely to pay for the privilege).<p>Volvo makes money on their invention and customers get the safety they desire.<p>Everybody wins.

In my opinion, this is the best example of a selfless action that turns itself into positive a valuable marketing. Volvo gave up profiting millions (billions?) for &quot;the sake of mankind&quot; which gave them an image of a company that cares, not only for their customers, but one that cares for everyone.<p>Well done.

An interesting question would be whether or not Volvo would do the same thing today if they made another such invention.

Volvo is not the only auto manufacturer to do this. I believe that Mercedes and Bosch do this too when their technology can considerably help the safety of the cars on the road.

Does a strap across the shoulder really warrant a patent? Am I just having good hindsight? I guess I need to think about this more, but the more I read about things that are patentable the less I think I believe patents should exist at all.

1959?? In Brazil there were no three-point seatbelt on any car until the 90&#x27;s!<p>I wonder why, since all our cars were from international big companies (Ford, Volks, Chevrolet...). They were locally produced, as we had a very closed market, but the technology was available for the big companies to introduce them here. Maybe it was cheaper to built the two-point one and as the brazilian customers didn&#x27;t have to know that a three-point version was even available, no one complained.

&quot;... a three point seat belt that can be seen in the above image and every car sold today&quot;<p>I&#x27;m confused, the above image is a meme -- was this copied from some other source?

&quot;German patent registrars named it one of the 8 most significant patents of the century - an honor shared with inventors like Thomas Edison.&quot;<p>They shared it rather then stole it from someone else. So sharing the list with Edison is a doubtable honour.

Thank god Apple didn&#x27;t do it!