In the most recent development in the battle between Tinder and Bumble, Bumble has filed a lawsuit against Tinder’s parent Company, Match Group, alleging trade secret misappropriation. The lawsuit alleges Match and Bumble were in acquisition talks when Match Group requested “confidential and trade secret information” as a part of these discussions and subsequently used this information for its own business gains. Trade secrets constitute information which derives independent economic value from not being generally known. The suit further goes on to claim that once Match discovered other companies were also interested in investing in or acquiring Bumble, Match filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Bumble in an effort to make Bumble less attractive to those other companies. That prior lawsuit involves two of Match Group’s patents for “Matching Process System and Method” covering a computer-implemented method of profile matching involving swiping gestures and graphical representations of user online-dating profiles, and the swiping graphical user interface design used by Tinder. Bumble claims Match’s lawsuit has potentially negatively affected its other investment and acquisition opportunities. As such, the dating app is requesting $400 million in damages as well as an injunction preventing Match and its affiliates from utilizing the confidential information obtained from Bumble. #omnilegalgroup #tradesecrets #Tinder #Bumble
