April 14, 2010 — Banner & Witcoff, Ltd., a national intellectual property law firm that is dedicated to the procurement, enforcement and litigation of intellectual property rights throughout the world, served as counsel for atebits LLC in its acquisition by Twitter.  atebits is the developer of “Tweetie”, a Twitter client application for Apple Mac computers and iPhones.  In 2009, Tweetie won the Apple Design Award at the iPhone Developer Showcase.

Ross A. Dannenberg, principal shareholder at Banner & Witcoff, served as lead intellectual property counsel for atebits and was assisted by Rajit Kapur, associate at Banner & Witcoff; Adam M. Cohen, Chris Balch, Susan Oakes, and Matthew Cavarra from Holland & Hart LLP led the transactional work, with assistance from Jane Francis and Michelle Danton.

This historical deal closed on Friday, April 9, 2010, for an undisclosed dollar amount. Banner & Witcoff’s role in the acquisition included serving as counsel in the transactional work, due diligence work, and handling the patent, trademark and copyright work for atebits.  Holland & Hart served as counsel in negotiating the transactional agreements and handling the mergers & acquisitions, tax, benefits, and technology transfer aspects of the transaction for atebits’ owner.

Please direct all media inquiries to Colleen Strasser at 312-463-5465 or cstrasser@bannerwitcoff.com.

atebits LLC was founded by Loren Brichter in 2008. Mr. Brichter, who previously worked for Apple, Inc. as a member of the iPhone team, will be joining Twitter, where he will continue developing applications for Apple’s iPhone and iPad as a member of Twitter’s mobile team.

Banner & Witcoff, Ltd. is dedicated to excellence in the specialized practice of intellectual property law, including patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, computer, franchise and unfair competition law. The firm actively engages in the procurement, enforcement and litigation of intellectual property rights throughout the world, including all federal and state agencies, and the distribution of such rights through licensing and franchising. The firm has more than 90 attorneys and agents in its Chicago, Washington, DC, Boston and Portland, OR offices.