English: Jack Dorsey at the 2010 Time 100. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Twitter Inventors Gain Patent Protection

Jack Dorsey (current CEO of Square and chairman at Twitter) and Biz Stone (aka Christopher Isaac Stone) have been granted a patent for Twitter, a patent petition that they filed some 6 years ago. The patent is for a device independent messaging system, a pretty accurate description of the social site long before it gained world-wide popularity. The company has the ability to file lawsuits against companies that offer similar services, although non have reached the popularity of Twitter and Twitter is not planning to sue anyone at this time.

Last year the company came out with an agreement for software developers that utilize the API to provide protection against copyright infringements. Creators of services around Twitter will be protected from others taking their services and copying them. At the time the company made statements that they would pursue more patents to protect themselves in the future against similar companies like Facebook. Speculation has risen that the patent is a move to make the company more valuable prior to a soon to come IPO.

Jack Dorsey, Co-Founder of Twitter and Square, Delivers His Keynote at Disrupt SF