Match accuses Tinder co-founder of stealing trade secrets
Match Group, a company which owns and operates several online dating websites including Tinder, has filed a lawsuit against a Tinder co-founder, accusing him of violating trade secret protection agreements.
The motion was filed at the US Supreme Court of the State of New York on Tuesday, January 15, by Match and its parent organisation IAC. The companies alleged that Sean Rad violated trade secret agreements by making copies of his work emails and documents.
Match asked the court to order Rad to return the documents and is seeking at least $250 million in damages.
The co-founder served as CEO at Tinder until 2016. In August 2018, The Verge reported that Rad had been fired from his position as chairman at Tinder in September 2017.
In its complaint, Match accused Rad of “surreptitiously copying a large volume of documents belonging to his employers in order to advance his personal interests”.
The company claimed Rad “deliberately flouted” security measures and violated his employment agreement by making duplicates of his Tinder emails and forwarded sensitive materials to a personal email address over the course of several years.
Match’s filing also claimed Rad copied company files that included “highly sensitive, non-public information concerning his employers’ business strategies and plans”.
Orin Snyder, a lawyer for Rad, said in a statement that the lawsuit was “ridiculous” because Rad’s employment contract allowed him to back up his email, according to Reuters.
“Do IAC and Match really think the jury won’t see right through this desperate act of retaliation?” Snyder asked.
In August 2018, Rad, along with ex-Tinder employees, filed a $2 billion lawsuit against IAC and Match at the same New York court. The group accused IAC of undervaluing Tinder during negotiations over stock options, which they said lost them approximately $2 billion.
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