Twitter entrepreneurship revelation: Early Protection of intellectual property

Guide: ecommercetimes.com website today, not all startups can develop as fast as Twitter, but they can at least get some useful insights from Twitter, such as early protection of intellectual property rights and an active response to possible lawsuits. The following is the full text: Twitter was founded in 2006, and the number of visitors to Twitter has been about 4 million this February. Twitter then set a bigger goal: to reach 1 billion users and become the "pulse of the planet."　　In just 6 months, Twitter's number of American users rose to 20 million, and the number of global users was as high as 37 million. If Twitter keeps growing at this rate, the number of users reaching 1 billion is not an unattainable goal.　　But it is because of its growing growth that Twitter is inevitably facing a series of lawsuits. Actively dealing with patent litigation is a kind of lawsuit frequently encountered by technology companies such as Twitter. On August 4 this year, a Texas company called Techradium filed a lawsuit against Twitter in a southern Texas district court, saying Twitter violated 3 of its patents.　　These patents are related to the technology of sending mass notifications via telephone, facsimile and wireless communications systems. As Twitter's influence rises, there will be more and more lawsuits of this kind of "we are the first."　　Twitter also said at an internal meeting that the company would face such lawsuits many times in the future. Twitter, in contrast to other start-ups, has been more prepared to deal with such lawsuits.　　Twitter is also considering more aggressive measures to deal with such lawsuits, such as hiring IP lawyers and taking the initiative to focus on intellectual property. In addition to the patent rights of "Tweet" trademarks, another issue that start-ups need to consider early is trademark protection. Twitter's lesson in this is worth other start-ups. Twitter applied for a trademark for the word "tweet" on April 16, 2009. At this point, Tweetmarks, CoTweet and Tweetphoto and other three companies have applied for a trademark containing the words "tweet".　　July 1, 2009, the United States Patent and Trademark Office initially rejected the Twitter trademark application, said that the other three companies to apply earlier than Twitter. Twitter's delay in trademark registration has brought trouble to the site's operations. July 1, 2009, Twitter sent a message to a developer that was made public. Twitter asks developers to use new names for development applications in their emails. Twitter has reiterated that it will not prevent developers from using the word "tweet" in matters related to the Twitter brand, but that using the word would create confusion oris hurting Twitter, and Twitter will take steps to protect its brand.　　However, since the US Patent and Trademark Office did not approve Twitter's trademark application for "tweets", Twitter does not currently have a "tweet" registered trademark, and therefore cannot take steps to prevent others from using the relevant name. Account authenticity problem In addition, Twitter faces questions about the authenticity of accounts. In May 2009, Tony La Russa, the US Saint Louis Red Sparrow baseball team manager, filed a lawsuit against Twitter. Tony Lah Loussat　　In the indictment, Tuscaloosa said someone had risked his name to register a false Twitter account, an unauthorized account that compromised his reputation and caused him mental harm. The bogus account released information about the death of former Cardinals player Dallers Kerl Darryl Kile and Josh Hankock (Josh Hancock).　　Although the bogus account number has been closed, Lah Loussat is still seeking compensation from Twitter for other issues such as infringement of his name and trademark. At the beginning of June this year, there were subtle changes in the incident. Lah Loussat announced that Twitter had reached a settlement with him, agreed to pay him legal fees and donated money to his charitable fund. Twitter, however, said the case was not reconciled and Twitter did not intend to reconcile or pay compensation to Lah Loussat.　　June 29, Lah Loussat finally announced the voluntary abandonment of the lawsuit. Twitter is taking this opportunity to introduce an "account verification" concept to improve the user experience of the Twitter site. Twitter no longer simply deletes user-reported false accounts, but verifies the authenticity of the account in advance.　　Twitter's account verification service is currently being tested, with the first confirmed to be confusing celebrity accounts, including U.S. President Barack Obama's account. Although it is difficult to predict which company will be "next Twitter", it can be noted that if startups want to succeed, they need to actively protect their intellectual property rights, including the ownership of patents and trademarks. In addition, start-ups need to be prepared for litigation and respond quickly to challenges in areas such as law and technology. (D-Gold)