[Fjslfj]

The Kik fairy tale never made sense. One of the guys behind the company was a PM at RIM, if I remember correctly. The entire UI of the app is a direct rip of BlackBerry Messenger. It was only a matter of time -- I wonder when RIM will sue them.

[alanh]

Sue them for what? Are trade secrets involved? Are the bitmaps directly lifted from RIM property? Because there is no copyright protection for the general idea of an interface!

Edit: Patent ≠ copyright, but nonetheless a patent suit would be interesting, damned weak, and unlikely to be resolved for years (IANAL)

[mikeryan]

Because there is no copyright protection for the general idea of an interface!

This isn't actually true, you can patent interfaces. Notoriously, a TV channel guide which has a grid interface with channels and times represented as columns and rows is patented (originally by TVGuide, now owned by Rovi). Every Guide you see on a cable or satellite box in the US pays a licensing fee to Rovi.

http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?WO=1998053607

[orangecat]

Wow, and filed in 1998? How is every spreadsheet in the world not prior art?

[lukeschlather]

Don't Apple's lawsuits against Android almost completely revolve around general ideas of interfaces?

[skymt]

A patent suit is possible. RIM has a number of mobile UI patents. I'm not familiar with Kik's UI, but if it's as close as I've heard, they could be infringing on a patent like this one: http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=6lKrAAAAEBAJ

[karanbhangui]

He was an intern.

[Pahalial]

As have been a disproportionate number of Canadian software engineers, one should add.

[imack]

Software interns in Canada get paid. He was a Waterloo student where he'd be required to do the co-op program since he was an engineer and he'd be paid pretty well at RIM. I did the co-op program and was able to finish undergrad without any debt because of it.

[karanbhangui]

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

[potatolicious]

RIM employs a pretty absurd number of software engineering interns. If you've done software internships in Canada, odds are you've worked for RIM at some point.

I've also heard horror stories stemming from this - some teams have such a high reliance on interns (cheap labour, hurrah!) that code quality is truly abysmal.

[Rantenki]

Waterloo is a hub of software engineering education in one of the most populous areas of Canada. A LOT of Canadian computer geeks went to school there. By extension, lots of them have interned at RIM, as it is so close: http://www.rim.com/company/maps/index.shtml

[karanbhangui]

Okay I see what you mean. Also, I went to Waterloo for ECE.