Any other IP could just be reverse engineered, for the most part.
https://www.wired.com/2014/06/tesla-just-gave-all-its-patent...
[1]: > Around the three-minute mark someone asks how many automakers have taken Tesla up on the offer to use its patents, and Musk notes:
>>> Musk: We actually don't require any formal discussions. So they can just go ahead and use them.
>>> Reporter: Is there a licensing process?
>>> Musk: No. You just use them. Which I think is better because then we don't need to get into any kind of discussions or whatever. So we don't know. I think you'll see it in the cars that come out, should they choose to use them.
Sounds nice, but no legal department on Earth is ever going to approve of deliberately using another company's patents without an explicit licensing agreement, no matter what non-legally-binding statements that company's CEO has made. As a sophisticated businessman, Musk is well aware of this fact.
[1] https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150217/06182930052/elon-...
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/opinion/china-us-intellec...
Think what you want about Elon, but he made the pledge openly and directly I think that means something.
If Ellison decides to retract said IP waiver, he would have to publically say so, and because the existing IP waiver Musk have provided doesn't seem to include any terms such as termination, i would assume it's an indefinite and perpetual waiver. Hence, Ellison will have to sue (and probably lose) to have existing usages of said IP to be discontinued.
IANAL.
Regardless though, the idea that no company would ever use the patents flies in the face of reality:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/10/14/tesla-m...
Ha Ha, Right? Chinese don't feel the same way about IP as Westerners.
That was my takeaway, actually.
Not everything can be reversed engineered, for example jet turbines that china still can't produce competitively. Battery tech is probably similar, not to mention software IP.