Twitter has been granted ownership of the way that Twitter works after applying for the patent in 2007.
Causing Twitter co-founder Biz Stone to exclaim, "Look Ma, I'm officially an inventor (my dream as a kid)!", the patent means that Twitter owns the rights to a "device independent message distribution platform".
Lucky Twitter, eh? It means that Twitter could go after any and all Twitter-alike services that use a similar hotchpotch of SMS, IM, email, web-form input and API calls to allow users to post messages to a large group of recipients. Hmm, that sounds a bit like Facebook, doesn't it?
Calm down
However, Twitter isn't likely to start up any patent wars a la Samsung and Apple. The company released a statement after the ruling, where it reiterates its reluctance to litigate aggressively.
"Like many companies, we apply for patents on a bunch of our inventions. We also think a lot about how those patents may be used in the future, which is why we introduced the Innovator's Patent Agreement to keep control of those patents in the hands of engineers and designers."
The Innovator's Patent Agreement means that Twitter has to get the agreement of its employees before using its patents to go on the court-based offensive.
But does this lenient approach mean that other companies will try and take Twitter for a ride?
From The Verge
