Twitter buys over 900 IBM patents to settle infringement dispute

By VCPOST Staff Reporter

Jan 31, 2014 06:19 PM EST

Twitter has opted to acquire some of the patents of IBM rather than undergo court litigation, according to VentureBeat.

Just a few days before Twitter went public in November, IBM claimed that the social media firm was infringing on its three patents. For a time, it seemed like Twitter was preparing for a court battle. However, IBM released an announcement today saying Twitter has instead bought over 900 of its patents. The two firms have also inked a cross-licensing deal to end other disputes in the future, the report explained.

The terms of the said deal were not revealed by IBM, but this is nothing new for the New York-based tech giant, which is known to be very litigious. A couple of years back, Google purchased over 1,000 patents from IBM to avoid litigation, the report detailed.

In a statement, Twitter legal director Ben Lee said: "This acquisition of patents from IBM and licensing agreement provides us with greater intellectual property protection and gives us freedom of action to innovate on behalf of all those who use our service."

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