Twitter and IBM sign patent agreement

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Twitter and IBM have signed a patent deal. Twitter takes over 900 patents from Big Blue, while the companies also get a license on each other’s patents. With the agreement, a possible patent suit from IBM against the social networking site lapses.

Just before its IPO, Twitter announced that IBM was considering suing the company. According to IBM, Twitter would infringe at least three of its patents. However, IBM would not directly aim for a lawsuit, but would try to reach a settlement after negotiations, while Twitter did not seem to shy away from a possible legal action.

Both companies have managed to resolve the patent issue between themselves, according to a statement from IBM on Friday. Twitter takes over 900 patents from Big Blue. In addition, the two companies give each other access to their intellectual properties. IBM and Twitter do not want to disclose how much money is involved in the agreement.

IBM, which has an extensive patent portfolio with more than 6800 patents, previously closed similar deals. In March 2012, Facebook bought 750 IBM patents, while Google acquired about a thousand patents from Big Blue in 2010. Many of the patents owned by IBM describe technology widely used by social networking sites and search engines.

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