Snapchat is the wildly popular app that lets you send impermanent messages, which expire after a given time. The app has mustered wild popularity in recent months and now, Reggie Brown has filed a patent against the company, claiming that he is a co-founder of Snapchat and deserves one-third ownership.
In some ways, Brown’s claim is not all that wrong. Apparently, he was really close friends with Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy. Brown and Spiegel lived for more than a year together, and when the idea of Snapchat was conceived, Brown and Spiegel were still fast friends.
Sources claim that the original idea was surfaced by Brown while he was talking about sexting. Once he had the idea, he reportedly shared it with Spiegel and then both Spiegel and Murphy set to developing the idea.
In his lawsuit, Brown has claimed as much, citing that when he first shared his idea, Spiegel kept exclaiming that he has come up with a million-dollar idea.
However, while Spiegel and Murphy set to coding and designing the app, Brown was apparently taking little interest, partying out and spending little time in developing his idea. Again, Brown claims that he did work diligently on developing the terms of use, answers to FAQs, marketing of the app and its patent application.
The problem arose at the time of filing the patent. Apparently, the point of contention was as petty as deciding who’s name would go first on the patent filing. This resulted in a huge fight between the trio and Brown separated from the company.
In the subsequent months, Spiegel and Murphy were able to start from a humble base, muster a huge audience, raise millions in funding and finally, take Snapchat to the level where the company is said to have a $70 million valuation. Now, Brown is back with a lawsuit demanding his share in the company. Let’s see which way this legal battle goes.
Courtesy: TechCrunch
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