MANILA, Philippines – Twitter founders Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone are now inventors. The pair recently received a patent for the messaging service many Internet users take advantage of today: Twitter.

The patent for Twitter describes it as a system and method for distributing messages to a set of followers.

Look Ma, I’m officially an inventor (my dream as a kid)! mobile.theverge.com/2013/3/19/4124…

— Biz Stone (@biz) March 19, 2013

With the patent in place, some may think Twitter may go on the offensive against similar services. In an April 2012 post, however, Twitter chose to uphold a defensive stance with their patents through the Innovator’s Patent Agreement, the text of which which can be found on GitHub.

Companies hoping to compete with Twitter may still have reason to pause and consider how to differentiate themselves from the Twitter service, but here’s to hoping the patent does promote innovation while defending a service people have gotten used to in this connected age. – Rappler.com