Under close reading, I can't help but wonder if this was all just a big misunderstanding. What sticks out to me is this line from the third email:
... if you actually release an open source project called kik, our trademark lawyers ...
But that makes no sense! The "open source project" Azer is talking about is already out in the open[1]. "Actually release" is an extremely weird way to talk about that, right?
That makes me wonder if when Bob saw "Sorry, I’m building an open source project with that name", he read, "There is a larger project called 'kik' I'm working on, maybe including a web site, marketing materials, other developers, SEO..." That would raise a flag, right?
So he tries to point out, quite reasonably, that they'd really have no choice but to try to protect their trademark in that case. They'd have to go after the domain name, the Twitter handle, anything else that was confusing consumers about what "kik" refers to. Wouldn't it be easier for everyone to change the name before all that stuff is launched?
But of course Azer doesn't have plans for any of that, and he didn't pick up on the hint, so what he hears is "Contrary to our claim to be friendly, we're planning to get our lawyers involved to shut down your npm module." And his response is, understandably though maybe not rationally, "Fuck you."
What makes me wonder is that nobody mentions the fact that they'd have a really hard time to fight for the 3-letter word "kik". A quick search in the USPTO's Tess database or WIPO's ROMARIN shows that there are way too many registrations under this name to make protection of a word mark likely (disclaimer: I'm very far from being a trademark expert, just interested in all the shenanigans some companies try to play under the name of patent/copyright/trademark laws).
That makes me wonder if when Bob saw "Sorry, I’m building an open source project with that name", he read, "There is a larger project called 'kik' I'm working on, maybe including a web site, marketing materials, other developers, SEO..." That would raise a flag, right?
So he tries to point out, quite reasonably, that they'd really have no choice but to try to protect their trademark in that case. They'd have to go after the domain name, the Twitter handle, anything else that was confusing consumers about what "kik" refers to. Wouldn't it be easier for everyone to change the name before all that stuff is launched?
But of course Azer doesn't have plans for any of that, and he didn't pick up on the hint, so what he hears is "Contrary to our claim to be friendly, we're planning to get our lawyers involved to shut down your npm module." And his response is, understandably though maybe not rationally, "Fuck you."
And here we are.
[1] https://github.com/azer/kik