Twitter: 'We Promise To Not Be a Patent Troll'

Fluffeh writes "Twitter today unveiled a bold new commitment that will be made in writing to its employees — the company will not use any patents derived from employee inventions in offensive lawsuits without the inventor's permission. Twitter has written up a draft of what it calls the 'Innovator's Patent Agreement,' or IPA, which encourages its developers to invent without the fear that their inventions will be used for nefarious purposes. 'The IPA is a new way to do patent assignment that keeps control in the hands of engineers and designers. It is a commitment from Twitter to our employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes,' Messinger wrote. '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.'"

We promise

[stanlyb]

We, the poor users, promise to believe you.......

permission discussion

[bloodhawk]

Manager : We would like to use one of your patents to sue our competitors for X amount
Engineer : I am sorry my ethics don't allow me to do that
Manager : We will cut you in for X million of the proceeds
Engineer : Where do I sign.