After denying the ousted co-founder Reggie Brown’s claims for more than a year, Snapchat has finally admitted that the credit for the idea of disappearing photo message goes to Brown.
Snapchat co-founders Evan Spiegel and Robert Murphy on Tuesday admitted that the app’s idea was Brown’s brainchild and that the company has resolved all legal disputes with him.
The company stated in the press release that it was Brown who originally came up with the idea of creating an application for sending disappearing picture messages while he was a student at Stanford University. Brown then collaborated with Spiegel and Murphy on the development of Snapchat during its early and most formative days.
The matter started when Brown filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court in February 2013 claiming that he originally came up with the idea for an app that sends disappearing photos in 2011 while attending Stanford University, and then shared the concept with Spiegel.
Brown said that the two of them collaborated with Murphy to develop Snapchat, but he was however pushed out of the company just one month after the app, first called Picaboo, was publicly launched in July 2011. Brown was seeking around $500 million in damages.
Announcing the settlement, Spiegel said Snapchat is pleased to resolve this matter in a manner that is satisfactory to Brown and the company and that it acknowledges Brown’s contribution to the creation of Snapchat and appreciate his work in getting the application off the ground.
As terms of the deal remain undisclosed, it is yet to be known how much settlement amount has been paid to Brown.
