Patents tweets increase again
Twitter wants to reform the patent system. But for the moment, it’s still paying big bucks ($36 Million to IBM) to avoid the kind of software patent lawsuits that have become all too common in recent years.
From Yahoo and Facebook to Apple and Samsung and Google, it seems that just about every big-name tech company is facing various patent suits. Now they can point to them als Patent trolls. Twitter has vowed to take the high road and use patents only as a means of avoiding lawsuits, and not to sue other companies for infringement. Like Google, it has called for serious reform that would cut back on frivolous patents and unwarranted suits and license deals. That’s earned Twitter accolades from software developers, who are often skeptical about whether software patents should be granted at all.
But it remains to be seen how shareholders respond.The temptation to strike out at a competitor may one day be too great — especially now that Twitter is a publicly traded company. Again and again, it just takes time. Let’s hope we can have reform before it gets to that point. [twitter]