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19 March 2018Patents

No love lost as Match brings Tinder lawsuit against Bumble

Match Group, owner of dating app Tinder, has hit “copycat” Bumble with a lawsuit, alleging that its rival was developed as a “Tinder-clone”.

Match filed a complaint for patent, trademark and trade dress infringement, and trade secrets violation at the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, Waco Division, on Friday, March 16.

American internet company Match operates several online dating sites including flagship brand Tinder, a location-based dating application initially released in 2012.

“Tinder is famously characterised by a stack of swipeable cards containing photographs of potential matches” and the user can choose to swipe right if interested in the person shown, Match explained. If two users swipe right on each other “a match has been made” and they can then communicate through the app.

Match said it has “spent significant time and effort” developing and advertising the unique swipe design.

Its lawsuit accused competitor Bumble, a location-based dating application released in 2014, of infringing patents, trademarks and trade dress relating to Tinder’s look and functionality.

Match owns US patent number 9,733,811 relating to the matching functions of the Tinder app; US trademark number 4,465,926 for the ‘Swipe’ mark; and numerous design patents related to ornamental aspects of the application, such as the swipeable photograph cards.

The ‘811 patent “revolutionises the world of online dating” through its interface technology and “copycat” Bumble infringes the patent through its system for matching, the complaint said.

Match claimed that Bumble’s user interface, chat screen, and other features are “nearly identical” to that of Tinder, and Bumble’s advertising makes use of references to “swipes”, demonstrating efforts to “co-opt Match’s trademarks and trade dress”.

The phrases “swipe left” and “swipe right” are unregistered trademarks and have “been famous since before Bumble even existed”, the suit said.

Match also claimed that Bumble has infringed US design patent D798,314, which covers the aesthetic element relating to Tinder’s swiping of cards.

Bumble was founded by three ex-executives of Tinder, who “copied Tinder’s world-changing, card-swipe-based” premise and developed Bumble as a “Tinder-clone”, alleged Match.

Match alleged that Bumble’s co-founders learned of certain features while working at Tinder and misappropriated these trade secrets.

The suit went on to claim that the only distinguishing feature of Bumble is its “woman-talk-first marketing strategy”, where women have to make first contact when seeking a heterosexual relationship on Bumble.

However, it added that “this case is not about feminism or a business marketed based on feminist themes” as “Match applauds Bumble’s efforts at empowering women” and “cares deeply” about women’s issues generally.

Match is seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction and damages, including compensatory damages, reasonable royalties, and exemplary damages.

The lawsuit comes shortly after Bumble rejected a $450 million acquisition offer from Match in 2017, as reported by Forbes.

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More on this story

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25 May 2018   Dating app Tinder’s parent company, Match Group, has been struck with a patent infringement claim involving the app’s discovery settings.
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27 September 2018   US internet dating company Match has asked a court to remove a state lawsuit filed by competitor Bumble against Match’s brand Tinder, as the allegations in it should instead have been addressed by counterclaims in the parties’ federal IP dispute.
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22 June 2020   Rivals Tinder and Bumble have agreed to resolve a trademark and patent clash centred on their dating apps.