A VC in Vacationland

Image via CrunchBase

Twitter
came up with a concept last year called the Innovator's Patent Agreement (IPA)
and put a draft IPA up on GitHub. They have gotten a ton of
feedback and have iterated and improved the concept since then.

The basic idea of the IPA is that it is a
contract between Twitter and the engineer(s) and designer(s) who developed the
IP. The contract says that Twitter will not use the patent offensively nor will
anyone who acquires the patent from Twitter. It goes on to say that Twitter or
a subsequent owner could use the patent offensively with the engineer's and/or
designer's approval.

This is an important step forward in stopping questionable patent trolls. I'm not saying that all patent infringement actions are illegal…far from it. But there is a group of companies that exist only to prey on software companies using patents that should have never been granted.

It's great to see some companies worrying about ethics, and not always just cash flow…