Ah, we love the smell of a patent lawsuit in the morning around here. It’s something between week-old garbage and the unmistakable stench of attorney ego. But patent lawsuits are often based on nothing more than greed and can end up hurting consumers in the long run. That’s why it’s so interesting that Twitter has made a public pact to not use its patents for evil. In an announcement this morning, the company states, “We will not use the patents from employees’ inventions in offensive litigation without their permission.” Patent lawsuits generally begin with one company — usually a patent troll or a tech megalith with a treasure trove of patents in the tens of thousands range — suing another over some relatively trivial (in the average consumer’s mind) piece of minutiae … Read entire article »