"This is a problem that is unique to software. We wouldn’t permit in any other area of technology the sorts of claims that appear in thousands of different software patents. Pharmaceutical inventors don’t claim “an arrangement of atoms that cures cancer,” asserting their patent against any chemical, whatever its form, that achieves that purpose. Indeed, the whole idea seems ludicrous. Pharmaceutical patent owners invent a drug, and it is the drug that they are entitled to patent. But in software, as we will see, claims of just that form are everywhere."

"if Michel is worried about anti-patent agitation from the software industry will “wreck the system” for other industries, that’s an argument in favor of creating a carve-out for the software industry. As long as software firms are vulnerable to patent trolling, they’ll be exerting pressure to weaken patent protections across the board. Freeing the software industry from the burdens of the patent system will make it easier to fine-tune the system for other industries where patent protection works better."

"we are publishing a draft of the Innovator’s Patent Agreement, which we informally call the “IPA”. The IPA is a new way to do patent assignment that keeps control in the hands of engineers and designers. It is a commitment from Twitter to our employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes. We will not use the patents from employees’ inventions in offensive litigation without their permission. What’s more, this control flows with the patents, so if we sold them to others, they could only use them as the inventor intended."