Texas Company Sues Twitter for Patent Infringement

Sugar Land-based TechRadium has sued Twitter in federal court, claiming that the popular messaging service infringes on its patents for a "mass notification" concept.

TechRadium sells an Immediate Response Information System (IRIS), which they describe as the industry leader "when it comes to immediate response or mass notification services for both emergency and non-emergency situations." The ability to "broadcast notifications through multiple forms of communications to hundreds of thousands of people quickly" is a key component of the system, according to the company's website.

This isn't the first time TechRadium has sued to protect its intellectual property. Last year, the company sued rival mass-notification company Blackboard, but the suit was dropped after the two sides agreed to a licensing agreement.

According to Wired's Threat Level blog, the same result is possible in this case. Legal experts agreed it wasn't a frivolous claim, although no one would predict the outcome of the lawsuit.