By Nitasha Tiku 5:17pm

Legalese

No smiley face for Groupie.

Battle of the NYC Startups: GroupMe Sues Groupie to ‘Remove Cloud of Uncertainty’ Around Trademark

Last week, GroupMe*, the popular group messaging app acquired by Skype in late August–filed a complaint in Southern District of New York against Groupie, another New York City-based startup. Their stated motive: to “remove the ‘cloud’ of uncertainty” around the GroupMe trademark.

In the filing, GroupMe stops just short of calling Groupie a trademark troll. Funny, we’re more accustomed to hearing about the patent kind.   Read More

By Ben Popper 12/13/11 7:30am

RIP

And now for the encore, Cameo

Fast Society Hits The Deadpool. New App, Cameo, Coming Soon

Back in more innocent times, our intrepid reporter Adrianne Jeffries went down to SXSW to cover the group messaging wars. A clutch of startups including Beluga, GroupMe, Kik and Fast Society were all battling to be the breakout star. GroupMe did the grilled cheese party, Fast Society countered with the shuttle bus from the airport.

Since then, Beluga was bought by Facebook and GroupMe got acquired by Skype. Kik is still going, but last night Fast Society, always the wildest of the bunch, announced they were shutting down their messaging service and moving on to a new app, Cameo, they will be launching in January.  Read More

By Ben Popper 3/07/11 7:53pm

Funding

Kik

Union Square and RRE Invest In Messaging App Kik

New York’s GroupMe and Fast Society have been getting a lot of attention recently as competition heats up in the group texting market. But two of New York’s most prominent venture firms have just chosen an app based in Waterloo, Ontario as their choice in this crowded field.

Union Square Ventures and Read More