You can’t go anywhere in the world without hearing about BlackBerry‘s infamous patent lawsuit against Kik Messenger, whose messaging application rivals BlackBerry’s own.
BlackBerry made allegations that Kik had infringed on patents and said Kik CEO Ted Livingston had utilized experience and knowledge gained during his time as an employee of BlackBerry (then called Research in Motion before changing the company’s name earlier this year).
Thankfully, as reported by the Financial Post, that three-year-old lawsuit has been dismissed as of September 4. BlackBerry and Kik have apparently settled out of court, though a confidentiality agreement is keeping the exact terms of the settlement under lock and key.
“We’re very happy with the way it was ultimately settled,” Livingston told the Post
One less loose end to tie up for BlackBerry, whose recently failed BBM for Android and iOS launch attempt and financial woes have put the very future of the company in jeopardy. With a tentative takeover offer that is still pending support as well as a report of interest from other potential buyers, the future of BlackBerry is up in the air.
As for an appearance of Kik on BlackBerry 10, Livingston did not specifically suggest that such a development could occur, but did say that the settlement “opens up the path to work together” if both companies chose to do so.
Kik recently surpassed BlackBerry in total user count with 80 million users compared to BBM’s 60 million. While Kik is available for all three major mobile operating systems, BlackBerry Messenger would have been available initially for iOS and Android, but hinted at Windows Phone expansion in the future.
What do you think? Would Kik Messenger on BB10 be a good idea?