The micro-blogging site Twitter is facing a patent infringement lawsuit from a company claiming to have already invented an online network for celebrities.
Twitter is regularly used by a whole host of celebrities worldwide, notably TV comic Stephen Fry, US rapper Kayne West and Hollywood couple Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher.
In the lawsuit, VS Technologies alleges that it came up with a platform to allow celebrities to communicate online four years before Twitter was launched. The company claims that Twitter has deviated from an original patent it was granted, and therefore infringes on its patent.
The complaint states that:
“As it pertains to this lawsuit, very generally speaking, the ‘309 Patent discloses methods and systems for creating interactive, virtual communities of people in various fields of endeavour wherein each community member has an interactive, personal profile containing information about that member,”
VS Technologies is seeking damages from Twitter in compensation for the alleged infringement – along with legal costs and interest for use of the patented technology – which the latter company would need to pay using some form of professional indemnity insurance should it lose the case.