Arnold Panz

All fair points, and I definitely don't have any knowledge first or second hand of ME's financial situation. The reason I sensed a clash of egos reading the Complaint was that a lot of extraneous stuff was included that any decent lawyer, without client control issues, would never want to include. It dilutes your core arguments to include (legally) irrelevant facts because it gives the impression that your entire argument is legally irrelevant. Someone else here referred to it as throwing as much stuff against the wall as possible and hoping something sticks.

It's possible the lawyers wanted to include all of the extraneous "facts", but usually it's the client who insists on adding stuff like that, even if it has no relevance whatsoever to the legal case, and can oftentimes hurt your case as much as help it. I don't know if ME felt desperate enough to sue because EM's alleged usurpation of the term "founder of Tesla" from ME was causing him problems in the marketplace (he mentions no specific examples in the Complaint, which would have been highly relevant and advisable to do if such examples existed), but regardless, I stand by my original statement which is that the only people who are likely to benefit from this case are the lawyers who get paid their fees regardless.

A lawsuit like this one should always be an absolutely last resort. I can't say if ME was at that point or not, but I have seen too many examples of people confusing questions of right and wrong with what can get remedied by our court system. Right and wrong generally have little or nothing to do with who wins or loses a court case.

vfx

Good point. But how do you document when "people talk". Whispers and innuendo are often hard to quantify. Entire careers can be destroyed with nothing ever written or recorded.

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Arnold Panz

It's the ultimate no-win situation, because being perceived as litigious is often as negative a reputation to get as anything else. Whatever else we can say about EM, he seems to be quite good at getting his message out (there are at least 4 new articles about him and TM posted on the official website today). I'm as far from Silicon Valley and the technology field as one can get, but I know that a lawsuit isn't going to restore ME's reputation to what he thinks it would have been absent EM's campaign against him.

I would say it is most unfortunate for ME that he has a powerful enemy, and I wouldn't have the first clue how to fight someone with money, people who listen to him, and a score to settle. But I do know that lawsuits 99% of the time don't solve people's problems or right the wrongs that have been done to them.

Assuming what the supporters of ME have written on this site is true, it's a damn shame, bordering on a tragedy, what has happened to him. To see his idea hijacked by an investor and him being thrown out the door without even receiving fair compensation, is reprehensible. And then to have his initial contribution to the founding of the company and all the hard work he put in to getting the Roadster ready for production dismissed and possibly forgotten to history must be infuriating, to say the least.

I didn't see that movie with Greg Kinnear about the guy who invented the intermittent windshield wipers, but even though the move apparently had a "happy" ending, I read a story about his family, who said that it was no fun having him obsess for 20+ years about the theft of his invention by the Big 3. Sometimes it's better to say life isn't always fair, cut one's losses, and move on.

TEG

Yes, I'll second that.

ChargeIt!

AnOutsider

link doesnt load for me.

As for ME, if his version of the events prove to be true, then I'll agree, it's a big shame and probably maddening for him to endure. I don't know that a lawsuit is the way to go about it though so much as moving on and continuing to innovate. If he still owns a stake in the company he'll be compensated anyway.

Though I would still want my name on the founders list as well.

donauker

I totally agree!

vfx

Another indicator of Martin's blogging and how he built a loyalty for the soul of the company is to look at the Tesla blogs. Now compare these pages. Back in the day all of this would be talked about on the Tesla blog. Jeremy's great writeup on the recent Tesla rally four days ago so far has two question/comments. We don't even go there any more.

Martin's blog comments always numbered in the hundreds. I imagine car sales would be much greater with a figurehead that when you would look at him and say, "I like this guy. I can trust this guy."
He had you liking him and therefore the company, not just the product.

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Lancelac

What I don't really understand is why Martin has had such a hard finding a job he wants or starting another project. Yes, there has ben some bad press and mudslinging, etc., but, as many of you have mentioned he absolutely inspired loyalty, trust and confidence in many, many people. Not only that, a lot of those people A) are people heavily involved and/or supportive of green technology and B) are powerful and rich people. In addition, it's obvious ME has a lot to offer with regard to knowledge and experience. It might be easy to see how the split with Tesla could hurt Martin in the view of the unknowledgable public, but the insiders? Baffling.

WarpedOne

I thought it was just me...

He doesn't. He got new job very shortly after departure from TM but that it is beside the point. Status of a founder has intrinsic value. That it wasn't necessary for immediate survival does not mean its not important. Once lost it wont come back.

What I find tragic is that shortly after Martins departure from TM, here came his wife nicked xCEOswife and expressed worries about rewriting history. So ...

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