Twitter has paid $36 million for 900 owned by  International Business Machines Corp (IBM). This purchase has ended any possibility of a lawsuit between the two companies, which IBM had threatened previously.

This brings Twitter’s US patent count up to 956, with 100 applications in the works as well. Before they went public in November, Twitter only had 9 patents, which would have made them vulnerable to lawsuits.

“We presently are involved in a number of intellectual property lawsuits, and as we face increasing competition and gain an increasingly high profile, we expect the number of patent and other intellectual property claims against us to grow,” Twitter said in the filing.

Their stock has also doubled since November as well, going from $26 to $53.45, which is where it closed on Friday, March 7.

[via Bloomberg, image via Todd Barnard’s flickr]