Federal judge OKs trial for Twitter

A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that social network Web site Twitter's accuser in a patent lawsuit has grounds to take the case to trial. U.S. District Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr. has denied Twitter's attempts to have the case stopped before it goes to trial, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Thursday. Inventor Dinesh Agarwal claims Twitter owes him as much as $441 million in royalties for using a system he developed in 2001 that allows the user to keep tabs on famous people, the newspaper said. Allegedly, Twitter has made use of his system for its Web site. Morgan ruled the case would go to trial Oct. 24 unless the two parties settle the dispute out of court.