Twitter retaliates against TechRadium’s patent infringement lawsuit

October 6, 2009

Twitter filed a defense in a patent infringement lawsuit filed against them by TechRadium of Texas.

TechRadium claimed that the idea of mass notifications was originally theirs and they have three issue patents—Nos. 7,130,389, 7,496,183 and 7,519,165. Twitter argued that the patents did not include their microblogging service thus they do not have to pay them any licensing fees.

According to their lawsuit against Twitter, it breached the patents because the messaging system uses different mediums such as RSS feeds, websites, text messages and cell phones.

TechRadium provides mass notification systems for public safety organizations, the military and utilities. Their primary concern is their Immediate Response Information system (IRIS), an emergency notification system.

Moreover, they said that it “simultaneously delivers uniform, reliable and verifiable emergency messages to an unlimited number of contacts within seconds, across all means and devices of communication.”

Their clients include Qwest Communications, San Antonio School, American Red Cross District US Army, Littleton Police Department, Lincoln University and United Way to cite a few.

If the issue is not settled, the case could become a legal struggle in patent law.