BlackBerry and Kik settle lawsuit over messaging patents
Kik has lived with the burden of a lawsuit for most of its life -- BlackBerry sued the company in 2010 for allegedly infringing on BBM-related patents with its multi-platform chat app. All that's water under the bridge, however, as Kik says that the two firms quietly settled the lawsuit last month. While the terms of the deal aren't public, it's clear that Kik is ultimately the winner. The startup had once offered to halt development if BBM went cross-platform, but it's now larger than the service it meant to replace -- Kik has over 90 million users versus BBM's 60 million. If nothing else, the settlement shows that it's wise to avoid making enemies in the technology world.
