Twitter Avoids Lawsuit, Licenses Hundreds of IBM Patents

Twitter has agreed to license more than 900 patents from IBM, to end a legal battle that began when IBM threatened to sue the social media juggernaut before its initial public offering in November. Three patents were at the heart of the dispute, one covering technology to help find URLs, one a method for putting ads in “an interactive service,” and another that could identify common friends in a list of contacts. The value of the deal was not disclosed.