When it comes to patents Twitter doesn't want to be part of the problem. Or, at least doesn't want you to think it's part of the problem and its new IPA (that's Innovators Patent Agreement, not India Pale Ale) outlines how it plans to stay above the fray and avoid abusing the system. The document is a relatively simple contract between Twitter and its employees that says any patents related to their work will be used for "defensive" purposes only. Meaning that the microblogging service has no plans to take one of its engineers designs and hammer Google in court because a function of Google+ is similar to a feature of Twitter
