Judge Swipes Right on Tinder App Patents
U.S. District Judge Alan Albright ruled the dating app interface is eligible for patenting, moving Match Group's suit against rival Bumble Trading one step forward.
December 20, 2018 at 05:03 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Texas Lawyer
The Tinder dating app's “swipe right” interface has survived an early attack on its patents by rival Bumble Trading Inc.
Judge Alan Albright of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas turned away Bumble's claim that two patents owned by Tinder parent Match Group LLC are ineligible for patenting under Section 101 of the Patent Act. Bumble, a dating app for women co-founded by former Tinder employees, had argued the patents are directed to the abstract concepts of matchmaking and picking cards out of a stack.
Match's patents cover a user interface that presents dating profiles as a stack of cards, with the user's “swipe right” gesture indicating a positive preference and swipe left indicating rejection. Match claims the Tinder application revolutionized the world of online dating. It sued Bumble, which is designed for women who want to make the first move, for allegedly infringing its technology.
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