Twitter and IBM Agree On Deal For 900 Patents, Gives Twitter More IP Protection

Twitter has acquired over 900 patents from IBM. The deal, which includes a cross-license agreement, was made last month, but the two companies have now formally announced it. IBM has received more patents in the U.S. than any other company for 21 consecutive years.

“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.” said Twitter Legal Director, Ben Lee.

Twitter revealed that IBM had issued a letter to the company alleging that it was infringing upon at least three of its patents, but “inviting” Twitter to negotiate a “business resolution”. Those particular patents were for “Efficient retrieval of uniform resource locators,” “Method for presenting advertising in an interactive service,” and “programmatic discovery of common contacts.”

“We are pleased to reach this agreement with Twitter because it illustrates the value of patented IBM inventions and demonstrates our commitment to licensing access to our broad patent portfolio. We look forward to a productive relationship with Twitter in the future.” said General Manager of Intellectual Property for IBM, Ken King.

Neither Twitter nor IBM revealed any detailed information about the deal, including the terms on which both parties agreed on.

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