Trial starts in Norfolk court in Twitter patent case

NORFOLK

Unable to reach a settlement, lawyers for the online social networking site Twitter went to trial Monday to defend against allegations that it infringed on a patent belonging to a Northern Virginia lawyer.

The trial in U.S. District Court here began with jury selection and opening arguments Monday afternoon.

Dinesh Agarwal, a patent attorney, says Twitter owes him between $11 million and $41 million in royalties for using the elements of his patent to create an interactive program to track people.

Agarwal invented an online interactive system for following famous people 10 years ago but never developed it commercially. It's his only invention.

Twitter last year unveiled a similar system that allows users to "browse interests" of people in certain endeavors. Agarwal's lawyer, Jon Suder, said Twitter has since tripled its number of users.

Twitter's lawyer, Elliot Peters, said the federal patent office never should have granted Agarwal his patent because the technology already existed. He said Agarwal's company, VS Technologies, has no employees and no revenue.

"Twitter is not liable to VS Technologies or its owner, Mr. Agarwal," Peters told the jury. "Twitter didn't even know this patent existed."

Peters also said he will show the jury that Agarwal only obtained the patent, at the height of the dot-com boom, with the idea he would someday sue to reap a benefit from it.

U.S. District Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr. refused several claims by Twitter to have the case thrown out. Settlement efforts before trial also failed.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com