Snapchat’s co-founders probably wish this lawsuit would disappear just like photos shared on their app.
Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy are facing new allegations in a suit brought by a former college buddy, Frank Reginald Brown IV, who claims he came up with the idea for the wildly popular app — and has the text messages to prove it.
One purported text message from Spiegel appears to acknowledge Brown came up with the original concept of disappearing messages, which is the fundamental basis for the app.
“I want to make sure you feel like you are given credit for the idea of disappearing messages,” according new court papers that quote from the alleged text.
The documents depict a deteriorating relationship between Spiegel and Brown, who met at Stanford and later recruited Murphy to their then nascent business in 2011.
Brown, without any real tech experience, claims to have done the legwork for getting Snapchat off the ground, including filing for patents and other legal tasks.
The court papers suggest there was a falling out after Spiegel took issue with Brown’s listing him last in the patent filing as a co-inventor.
Spiegel later tried to reconcile and messaged Brown with the text giving him credit, the suit claims.
Snapchat just raised $80 million from major Silicon Valley players, including Institutional Venture Partners.
Spiegel and Murphy cashed in some of their shares in the company for $10 million each, according to reports.
Brown’s attorney, Luan Tran, is seeking to get Snapchat’s attorneys barred from the case, according to the latest filing in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Brown claims law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan represented him last year for a brief period, in which he shared information he considered confidential.
The firm did not return request for comment.
The Snapchat saga is shaping up to be yet another drag-out fight among college kids turned tech titans.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, Harvard alums, sued and later settled with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a battle over Facebook’s founding.
The famous falling out led to a movie, “The Social Network.”
gsloane@nypost.com