Kim Dotcom has a lot of fingers in a lot of pies. He’s fighting off international criminal charges, he’s a Call Of Duty champion, he’s a musician, and now it turns out, he’s also a patent vendor. Kim claims to own the patent that deals with Twitter’s new two-factor authentication service, and he wants to sell it to me.
Image: Hannah Johnston/Getty
Twitter rolled out two-factor authentication yesterday, joining companies like Google and Microsoft, which gives users more security on their accounts.
Kim Dotcom came out on Twitter yesterday claiming that Twitter is using a two-factor authentication method he patented years ago, but added that he wouldn’t sue over its alleged theft. Instead, Kim just wants them to help fund his defence.
He tweeted yesterday:
Google, Facebook, Twitter, Citibank, etc. offer Two-Step-Authentication.
Massive IP infringement by U.S. companies. My innovation. My patent— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 22, 2013
I never sued them. I believe in sharing knowledge & ideas for the good of society. But I might sue them now cause of what the U.S. did to me
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 22, 2013
Google, Facebook, Twitter, I ask you for help. We are all in the same DMCA boat. Use my patent for free. But please help funding my defense.
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 22, 2013
…before adding that he’d just as happily sell the patent to help fund his defence:
Want to buy the world wide license to my two-factor-authentication patent? (13 countries incl. US & China)
Email: twitter@kim.com— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 23, 2013
…so I figured, why not?
@KimDotcom Sure, why not.
— Luke Hopewell (@lukehopewell) May 23, 2013
I dropped Kim’s email a line and got a response late last night with the asking price:
$US50 million with a proviso that Kim takes a 15 per cent cut of any earnings related to it. Not a bad price for something that’s supposedly used by some of the world’s biggest companies.
So, who wants to loan me $US50 million?