Ok, I know some people like the openness presented here by Kik and don't like Azer's response, but I just wanted to point this out from the perspective of a teacher who works with children from kindergarten to the 9th grade. If you get a short response like this as the first reply:

> Sorry, I’m building an open source project with that name.

This indicates that the person feels an emotional attachment to the name. Also, since the response is short and to the point, it is clear that they don't see any logical reason to give in. When responding to this, you need to use empathy (honestly, something severely lacking in a lot of these types of conflicts in the programming world). So rather than responding with this:

> We don’t mean to be a dick about it, but it’s a registered Trademark in most countries around the world and if you actually release an open source project called kik, our trademark lawyers are going to be banging on your door and taking down your accounts and stuff like that — and we’d have no choice but to do all that because you have to enforce trademarks or you lose them.

A good, proper response would have been something that:

1. Explains that Kik is their company's name and why not being able to use it would put them in a hard spot. Yes, it would be reiterating the point from the first email, but objectively, that first email wasn't exactly clear. No company links, no explanation of what this "important" package is, etc. NEVER expect someone that you are asking a favor from to go out of their way to figure out what you are saying. That's your responsibility.

2. Don't mention trademarks or lawyering up. That's a power play and all teachers know that you don't need to wield the authority stick most of the time. With something like this, it's worse because you are threatening a person's livelyhood. If that's your go to response, you will 100% get instantly shut out both emotionally and logically. Expect compromise to end right there.

3. When asking for a favor, cause this is a favor, and trying to compromise, don't ask them what they want. They obviously want the package name. For those of you who have been in salary negotiations before, this should ring a bell. This is a power play by Kik to give up as little as possible for what they want. Kik is the one asking a favor. Say the word favor. Make it known that Azer would be doing a good thing by compromising and helping you out. Make the first offer. Give Azer something to think about and go from there.

Having seen Kik's initial attempts at communication, I can now 100% understand Azer's response. It's the obvious result. Immature? Overblown? Honestly, this is pretty much par for the course with most humans no matter the age. Some of us are just better at stopping and taking a moment to think before replying. On the internet where you cannot see who you are talking to? There is even less of a barrier.

I can make a lot of parallels to teaching and working with children, but I think what I wrote should be clear enough. Kik is in the wrong here and really needs to apologize for their actions - to the community and to Azer - and should put in some effort to helping NPM fix this fiasco.