BlackBerry and messaging app maker Kik Interactive settled a patent infringement  dispute, nearly three years after Kik was pulled from the device vendor’s app store.

The struggling handset vendor sued Kik on the grounds that it made false and/or misleading statements that caused confusion with its own BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) app.

A statement from Kik said the settlement was reached last month, ending all legal action between the companies.

Kik founder Ted Livingston previously worked on BBM and had pushed the idea of making the messaging app available on all platforms, in a bid to take on Apple and Android.

When faced with opposition Livingston left to develop Kik, which now has 90 million users and secured $19.5 million in venture funding in April this year. BlackBerry said BBM had 60 million users in May.

According to the The Globe and Mail, Livingston told BlackBerry (then RIM) in 2010 that he would halt the development of Kik if BBM was expanded to other platforms.

“I think if RIM had spun BBM out of the company and let an independent company run with it [as a cross-platform service] it would be big enough to rival Facebook,” Livingston told The Globe and Mail.

Co-CEO Jim Balsillie later pushed the idea of making BBM as cross-platform service which could be offered as a service to mobile operators. However BlackBerry’s senior leadership was split over the issue with current CEO Thorsten Heins putting a stop to the plan in early 2012.

However, BlackBerry has since developed BBM for iOS and Android, both of which are currently in beta testing after a bungled launch in September.