Twitter may find itself on the receiving end of a lawsuit over three patents International Business Machines (IBM) claims Twitter is infringing, according to a new SEC filing made public on Monday.
In the filing, Twitter says IBM is charging the microblogging website with violating three of its patents — a patent related to the “retrieval of uniform resource locators,” a patent related to interactive advertising and a patent related to the “discovery of common contacts.”
Twitter, which is positioning itself for a high-profile initial public offering, said IBM sent the website a letter offering to resolve the dispute through negotiations. Twitter did not say when it received the letter, but did say it believes it had “meritorious defenses to IBM’s allegations.”
While Twitter appears to have braced for an impending lawsuit, there’s no indication either side have reached out to a court to settle the dispute. The Desk found no court filings in state or federal court by either side on the matter.
Twitter spokesperson Jim Prosser told The Desk the company would not comment beyond what was in the S-1 filing. IBM has not returned an inquiry for comment.
TechCrunch: IBM claims Twitter violating three patents
