RIM vs Kik – The story continues

For those of you that have been following the Kik messaging saga on BlackBerry you may or may not be aware that RIM have launched a suit against Kik Interactive for patent infringement.

It would appear that Kik have infringed three Canadian patents but in addition it also looks like Ted Livingston, the CEO of Kik interactive, worked at RIM as part of the BBM group in 2007 to 2008. RIM alleged that Ted had access to confidential information regarding BBM development, future plans, and technology and used them to his benefit.
RIM also alleged that Kik had, without obtaining user consent, transmitted end users’ personal information, including information from their address books, to Kik’s servers and then used that information to send spam.
This is going to be an interesting case to watch, as RIM will certainly ask for an injunction to stop Kik from distributing its software across not only BlackBerry, but all other mobile platforms as well.

Some unhappy times lie ahead for happy Kik users I think.

Posted by: James