Twitter won't use employee patents offensively
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
It is a commitment from Twitter to our employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes. We will not use the patents from employees’ inventions in offensive litigation without their permission. What’s more, this control flows with the patents, so if we sold them to others, they could only use them as the inventor intended.
This is very good news. Twitter has been known in the past for defending the right of its users against dubious subpoenas. Now, it looks like they’re taking the moral high ground on the patent wars.