It was only a matter of time before the social networking site, Twitter, became the target of lawsuits. The popular site has become the third largest social network in the world, just behind MySpace and Facebook. The number of users has been estimated at approximately 6 million tweeting 225 million tweets every day.
Popular, right? But for now, there are no real ads on twitter and no fees to use its services. Exactly how twitter is (or plans) to make make money remains a mystery. That hasn’t, however, stopped the lawsuits.
Tony LaRussa took the first well-publicized shot. The St. Louis Cardinals manager filed suit in June over a twitter account that used his name without his permission. LaRussa claimed emotional distress but the suit was eventually dropped.
It was expected that similar suits would follow. Surprisingly, however, the most recent suit against twitter has nothing to do with user accounts at all. Instead, TechRadium Inc. has filed suit against twitter claiming patent infringement.
TechRadium is headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas. It delivers the self-described “world’s leading edge mass notification and emergency alerting systems to a vast array of governmental, educational, commercial and non-profit entities.” TechRadium is best known for IRIS™ (Immediate Response Information System) which utilizes VOIP (voice over internet protocol).
TechRadium alleges Twitter has infringed upon its patents relating to digital notification systems. TechRadium claims that Twitter has offered this technology for sale and use without permission. As a result, TechRadium is seeking economic damages and a permanent injunction barring Twitter from infringing on its patents.
Twitter, Inc. has not yet made comment about the suit. You can bet, however, that users will have lots to say on the matter throughout the day.
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