Snapchat lawyers seek to silence Reggie Brown

In the suit against Snapchat, lawyers fear an oversharing Brown will expose unflattering secrets about the company.

(Credit: Snapchat)
Snapchat's legal team is going on the offensive in the hopes of preventing more seemingly incriminating video footage or statements from appearing in the press.

Friday, the Los Angeles-based company's lawyers filed a motion with California's Central District Court seeking a temporary restraining order against the jilted Reggie Brown. Brown is suing Snapchat, its co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, and the company's investors for a stake in the application he claims to have invented in the spring of 2011.

The suit, which was first filed by Brown and his lawyers in state court in February of this year, was moved to federal court by the defendants in November. It continues to gain media attention as Snapchat's popularity and value escalate with each passing month.

But the issue at hand now is whether Brown and his attorneys have the right to talk to the press about protected matters. Snapchat's legal team, Quinn Emaneul, is seeking the temporary restraining order against Brown because the firm believes that Brown provided Business Insider with deposition videos that were marked confidential. In the motion, Quinn Emanuel partner Bruce Van Dalsem alleges that Brown's lawyer, Luan Tran, confirmed in a December 2 phone call that his firm provided the video snippets of Spiegel's and Murphy's depositions to Business Insider.

"Plaintiff and his counsel boldly claimed they had a right to make such disclosures -- despite the contrary terms of the Protective Order -- because they unilaterally (and wrongly) determined that Snapchat had waived its rights under the Protective Order," Van Dalsem wrote. "Plaintiff and his counsel also refused to cease further violations of the Protective Order, stating that they reserve the right to disclose Snapchat's confidential documents and information to the media -- at any time and without any warning or meet and confer -- whenever they unilaterally determine that Snapchat has, in their erroneous view waived its rights under that Order."

The leaked videos show portions of the taped depositions of Brown, Murphy, and Spiegel, which were conducted earlier this year. In one telling clip, Spiegel testified that "Reggie may deserve something for some of his contributions."

And surely, there are more juicy bits of information that we haven't seen yet, as hinted at by Snapchat's lawyer. "Snapchat will suffer great or irreparable injury if plaintiff is permitted to disclose Snapchat's confidential information to the public," Van Dalsem said.

Brown, according to Quinn Emanuel, is said to have scheduled an "exclusive interview" with GQ. Clearly, Snapchat's legal team would like to have the restraining order granted before said interview takes place. Quinn Emaneul is also seeking monetary sanctions against the opposition for what it believes is a violation of a previously issued protective order.