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| Twitter declares ceasefire on patent wars with protections for engineers | Twitter declares ceasefire on patent wars with protections for engineers |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| It seems that every day there's another patent lawsuit in the tech world: | It seems that every day there's another patent lawsuit in the tech world: |
| Yahoo set off alarm bells when it sued Facebook last month, claiming the social network had violated 10 of its patents. Weeks later, Facebook fired back, declaring that 10 of its own patents were infringed by Yahoo. | Yahoo set off alarm bells when it sued Facebook last month, claiming the social network had violated 10 of its patents. Weeks later, Facebook fired back, declaring that 10 of its own patents were infringed by Yahoo. |
| Apple and Samsung have patent lawsuits over mobile devices filed against each other in countries around the world. | Apple and Samsung have patent lawsuits over mobile devices filed against each other in countries around the world. |
| Guitar Apprentice sued Ubisoft over its Rocksmith technology earlier this month for patent infringement on a "media system and method of progressive musical instruction". | Guitar Apprentice sued Ubisoft over its Rocksmith technology earlier this month for patent infringement on a "media system and method of progressive musical instruction". |
| But Twitter says it wants to stop all of this. | But Twitter says it wants to stop all of this. |
| In a blogpost on the company website on Tuesday, the microblogging platform announced that it has struck a new agreement with its employees that will give legal rights to engineers and designers who develop a patent while working for Twitter. | In a blogpost on the company website on Tuesday, the microblogging platform announced that it has struck a new agreement with its employees that will give legal rights to engineers and designers who develop a patent while working for Twitter. |
| The argument, according to Adam Messinger, vice-president for engineering at Twitter, is that it would diminish the potential of a patent being used for offensive litigation. | |
| "Typically, engineers and designers sign an agreement with their company that irrevocably gives that company any patents filed related to the employee's work," he wrote. | "Typically, engineers and designers sign an agreement with their company that irrevocably gives that company any patents filed related to the employee's work," he wrote. |
| The company then has control over the patents and can use them however they want, which may include selling them to others. | The company then has control over the patents and can use them however they want, which may include selling them to others. |
| With the IPA (Innovator's Patent Agreement) employees can be assured that their patents will only be used as a shield rather than as a weapon. | With the IPA (Innovator's Patent Agreement) employees can be assured that their patents will only be used as a shield rather than as a weapon. |
| The IPA, which can be read in full over at GitHub, will be retroactively enacted for any patent under the Twitter umbrella. | The IPA, which can be read in full over at GitHub, will be retroactively enacted for any patent under the Twitter umbrella. |
| But will it work? Some patent laywers were somewhat skeptical. | |
| "The question is really one of whether it's an effective mechanism when it's done unilaterally," Paul Gardner, academic director for the Patent Resources Group, told the Guardian. | |
| He said: "My personal opinion is that it would likely be of questionable value because it's unilateral. It would require the entire technology community to engage with them to discourage companies fighting with one another over patent rights in general – especially that part of the community known as patent trolls." | |
| But influential venture capitalist and blogger Fred Wilson weighed in a little more optimistically. | |
| "I like to call this move the 'Twitter Patent Hack' because I think what they have done is very clever and is likely to have a material change in the way patents are used to foster and/or hinder innovation, as the case may be," he wrote. | "I like to call this move the 'Twitter Patent Hack' because I think what they have done is very clever and is likely to have a material change in the way patents are used to foster and/or hinder innovation, as the case may be," he wrote. |
| Few will argue against the point that patent trolling has gotten out of hand. But it remains to be seen whether others will follow suit just yet. | Few will argue against the point that patent trolling has gotten out of hand. But it remains to be seen whether others will follow suit just yet. |
| Foursquare's head of engineering Harry Heymann tweeted: | Foursquare's head of engineering Harry Heymann tweeted: |
| I'm a big fan of what twitter is doing with patent assignments. Definitely going to look into doing the same at foursquare. #TwitterIPA | I'm a big fan of what twitter is doing with patent assignments. Definitely going to look into doing the same at foursquare. #TwitterIPA |
| But Facebook released a noncommittal statement saying it will review Twitter's new IPA: | But Facebook released a noncommittal statement saying it will review Twitter's new IPA: |
| "We appreciate the spirit of this initiative and look forward to reviewing the materials that Twitter has shared with us." | "We appreciate the spirit of this initiative and look forward to reviewing the materials that Twitter has shared with us." |