The co-founders of the popular photo messaging app Snapchat have been hit by a road block after 23-year-old Frank Reginald Brown IV, who is a resident of South Carolina, dragged them to a court of law by filing a law suit. In this law suit Brown claims that he was the one who had actually came up with the idea of Snapchat back in 2011. According to Brown, when he was studying at Stanford, Evan Spiegel, co-founder of Snapchat, was his dorm mate and friend. During that period, he shared the idea of developing an app with Spiegel that would “automatically delete” messages and after listening to the idea Evan suggested Brown that they should work together on the plan and turn it into a company.
According to the court case, obtained first by BetaBeat, “Brown stated to Spiegel something to the effect of: ‘we should make an application that sends deleting picture messages.’ Spiegel acknowledged the commercial viability of Brown’s idea, repeatedly exclaiming that Brown had indeed conceived of a ‘million-dollar idea.'”
Speigel’s offer appealed to Brown and he agreed to work in partnership with him, as they “shook hands” after making the deal. The duo then commenced interviews to find a potential coder to develop the app and finally end up picking a friend of Spiegel, Boby Murphy, who is now recognised as the other co-founder of Snapchat. After that the trio entered into an “explicit oral agreement” under which they formed a joint venture and pronounced that each of them would get “one-third ownership and profit interests,” according to the lawsuit.
As per their “explicit oral agreement” Brown was to take the chair of chief marketing officer for the company, whereas Spiegel would be the chief executive officer and Murphy would gain the position of CTO. Brown alleges that after agreeing upon their roles in the company he made some significant contributions towards the project. One of them was suggesting the original name of the application that was Picaboo and the other was the ghost logo that is still a part of Snapchat. In addition, Brown also asserts that the original pages of company’s Twitter and Facebook account were initiated by him.
The 23 year old also alleges that he had also drafted the “patent application of the technology used in the app,” according to Mashable. Brown also released a picture of the three in which according to him they were celebrating the “birth of Picaboo” at a bistro in Los Angeles. The cake in the photo given above is clearly showing the ghost logo that Snapchat uses now.
Brown said in the lawsuit that eventually their partnership came to end when during summer he went to visit his family in South Carolina, as the trio had a “contentious telephone conversation regarding their startup,” that ended when Spiegel finally hung up the phone.
The lawsuit says, “In the next few days, the Individual Defendants wrongfully and physically shut Brown out of the joint venture/partnership by, for example, changing the passwords for its computer servers and accounts to prevent Brown from doing any further work on the Application. The Individual Defendants then cut off all communication with Brown and refused to respond to his requests to discuss the matter with them.”
Later Spiegel and Murphy changed the name of the project to Snapchat from Picaboo and soon after that it did not take this app much time to become a hit on App Store. In fact, at the start of 2013 Snapchat has successfully secured a $13.5 million funds in a funding round. Brown on the other hand is now looking to have his share by restoring the “rights and interests,” that Spiegel and Murphy promised to him at the initial stage.
Commenting on the lawsuit, Snapchat said that, “We are aware of the allegations, believe them to be utterly devoid of merit, and will vigorously defend ourselves against this frivolous suit.”
Source: Mashable
Photo: Mashable
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