Twitter Wins Patent Lawsuit, Won’t Have To Pay $8 Million In Compensation

In just under a year, Twitter has fought and won a more than $8 million patent lawsuit.

Twitter was being sued for infringing on a patent filed in 2002 for “creating an interactive community of famous people,” and won its courtroom battle this week.

According to reports from Bloomberg, a federal jury in Norfolk Virginia sided with Twitter in a nearly year-long battle the company has been waging against VS Technologies.

VS Technologies had filed a lawsuit in January claiming that Twitter infringed on their patent for a virtual community, which included the ability to allow famous people to connect and members to create a profile.

Twitter had fought this lawsuit tooth and nail since the beginning, attempting to first move it from Virginia to its hometown of San Francisco and eventually losing a petition to get the case thrown out.

VS Technologies was seeking about $8.4 million in compensation, which Twitter claimed was an unfair amount even if it ended up losing in court.

The case went to trial this week, and a jury was ordered to rule on the fate of the two companies. They came out in favor of Twitter, dismissing VS Technologies’ claims against the social network.

Bloomberg cites Sean Garrett, Twitter communications, as responding to the win:

“We are gratified that a jury has agreed that this suit had no merit. While we would prefer to compete on the Internet rather than the courtroom, we will continue to vigorously defend groundless patent lawsuits filed against us.”

(Image courtesy of Andrey Burmakin via Shutterstock)

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