Twitter buys 900 IBM patents
February 3, 2014
By Chris Forrester
Twitter has bought a batch of more than 900 patents from IBM, and resolves a row between the two parties where IBM was alleging that Twitter was infringing its patents. In November Twitter, ahead of its IPO, told US regulators that IBM had accused it of infringing “at least” 3 patents.
The deal was done in December, but only now released in a joint-statement from the two. The deal sees Twitter acquire the patents and also strike a cross-licence agreement with IBM.
The deal is seen as boosting Twitter’s ability to rival its services with the likes of Google, Yahoo and Facebook.
“This acquisition of patents from IBM and licensing agreement provide us with greater intellectual property protection and give us freedom of action to innovate on behalf of all those who use our service,” Ben Lee, Twitter’s legal director, said in a joint statement with IBM last Friday.
IBM is often cited as the world’s largest holder of IP patents.
Terms of the deal were not revealed.