Tinder Swipes Left, Sues Bumble

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rgMekanic

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The Match Group, the company that owns TInder, has filed a lawsuit against rival Bumble. Fortune is reporting that the lawsuit claims Buble has infringed on two patents, one “matching process system and method,” and “display screen or portion thereof with a graphical user interface of a mobile device.”

While I'm not well versed since I don't use either app, the “display screen or portion thereof with a graphical user interface of a mobile device.” sounds a little broad.

A spokesperson for Match said that the group “has invested significant resources and creative expertise in the development of our industry-leading suite of products” and is “prepared when necessary to enforce our patents and other intellectual property rights against any operator in the dating space who infringes upon those rights.”
 
They invested significant resources in copying touch pad gesture controls that have been around for decades now.
 
display screen or portion thereof with a graphical user interface of a mobile device

https://patents.google.com/patent/USD755814
Click to expand...

It's absurd as it sounds. It appears to be the "swipe left/right" gesture and graphic elements.

The other one: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8566327

Speaking of which, The Match Group seems to acquire everyone in this space. So I'm assuming Bumble turned down an acquisition offer and now the gorilla (TMG) is trying to drain them of capital via lawsuits. They're borderline Anti-trust at this point.
 
Spidey329 said:
It's absurd as it sounds. It appears to be the "swipe left/right" gesture and graphic elements.

The other one: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8566327

Speaking of which, The Match Group seems to acquire everyone in this space. So I'm assuming Bumble turned down an acquisition offer and now the gorilla (TMG) is trying to drain them of capital via lawsuits. They're borderline Anti-trust at this point.
Click to expand...

That patent is a joke

A method for profile matching includes receiving a plurality of user profiles, each user profile comprising traits of a respective user. The method includes receiving a preference indication for a first user profile of the plurality of user profiles. The method also includes determining a potential match user profile of the plurality of user profiles based on the preference indication for the first user profile. The method also includes presenting the potential match user profile to a second user.
Click to expand...

The first part, matching based on interests, we did that shit in 6th grade, many many years ago. Answered some personal questions and a few weeks later we received a print out (the old paper with the sides with the holes in them) with who and what percent matches were for boys and girls. Come to think of it, that was a little weird for middle school lol.

How can you patent something that people have been doing for years. And the fact that it adds the innovative feature /s of trying to be smarter about matching after the fact is irrelevant given the way that they wrote the patent.
 
I read somewhere else that Match Group was trying to buy Bumble. This is probably to put pressure on them to sell.

Online dating apps are a rough business. They must make some money to be worth all of this.
 
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