Twitter posted this morning to announce a new arrangement the company has with its developers regarding the patents they have received for their work. It's called the Innovators Patent Agreement and it is an effort to reward their talented people for creating industry-leading products. This also -- in theory -- helps stem the tide of attacks from patent trolls by leaving control of the ultimate use of the patent in the hands of the creator.
Techdirt's Mike Masnick summarizes it:
"The method by which this works is pretty creative. Basically, if the actual patent holder tries to use the patent offensively without first obtaining the permission of the inventor, the agreement allows the inventor to issue a license to the entity being sued."
Read more from Mike at Techdirt, read the full agreement posted by Twitter on Github here. It's great to see Twitter doing something like this, but how about other patent holders? We think it's an innovative idea that could change the wider landscape with increased adoption and we're curious to see how it rolls out. Would it be a good strategy for your company? Let us know what you think over in the comments.
