Snapchat's Founders, Ousted Creator Feud Over Company Dollars, Rights

by Liz Spear

Not everything is rosy for Snapchat, the Venice-based company whose smartphone application recently was the subject of a buyout bid from social media giant Facebook, according to CNET.

In an online report, CNET reporter Jennifer Van Grove examines the lawsuit between exiled creator Reggie Brown and Snapchat's two co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, who grew up in Pacific Palisades.

The present legal wrangling is over deposition video Brown gave to the media outlet Business Insider, which has prompted the Snapchat legal team to file for a temporary restraining order against Brown. Brown's attorneys contend the release merely provides others a chance to see Snapchat's attempt "to paint him as a shakedown artist whose lawsuit is a 'frivolous' 'fabrication' containing allegations that he 'made up,'" according to papers filed with the court in defense of the video release.

Brown and Snapchat are embroiled in a lawsuit Brown filed in February against Snapchat, Spiegel, Murphy, and the company's investors for a one-third stake in the Snapchat app, which he says he dreamed up in early 2011, according to the CNET article.

To read more about the case, on CNET, and see Brown's 25-page opposition motion to the temporary restraining order filed by his lawyers, click here.

• Previously: Venice Beach Startup Receives $60M in Investment Funding