【Dear Utol (2025): Catfish Episode 46】

Bumble has filed a counter lawsuit against Tinder's parent company Match Group.

The Dear Utol (2025): Catfish Episode 46move comes in response to Match Group's lawsuit accusing Bumble of patent infringement, specifically with swipe-based matching (see patent) and undoing a "left" swipe. It may seem like a movie plot, but no, this is real life. We've entered the war of the dating apps.

Match Group owns Tinder, along with Match.com, OkCupid, Plenty of Fish, and other dating apps. Its lawsuit was filed earlier this month and prompted Bumble to buy a full-page ad in the New York Timescalling out the company's "scare tactics."

"We swipe left on your attempted scare tactics, and on these endless games. We swipe left on your assumption that a baseless lawsuit would intimidate us. Given your enduring interest in our company, we expected you to know us a bit better by now," the ad read.

The 22-page lawsuit includes specific details on Match Group's interest in and relationship with the Bumble. For example, the lawsuit cites Match Group's $450 million offer back in June 2017 and describes Match Group CEO and CFO meeting with Bumble in November 2017.

"But after a period of inaction, Match suddenly backtracked and said that it had decided not to make another offer to invest. The parties amicably suspended negotiations. At this point, it became clear that Match’s strategy was to wait things out in the hopes of getting a stake in Bumble for below fair value," the lawsuit reads.

Bumble's lawsuit lists several causes of action:

• Tortious interference with prospective business relations

• Fraud

• Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act

• Unfair competition

• Promissory estoppel

• Business and commercial disparagement

Related to that last cause, Bumble's lawsuit cites that it has "suffered special damages, as the disparagement by Match has chilled the market for an investment in Bumble."

This is far from Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd's first legal battle. She had filed a lawsuit against her former employer Tinder, alleging sexual harassment, back in 2014. She founded Bumble shortly thereafter, which differentiated itself from other dating apps by only allowing women to initiate conversations.

Herd and her fellow executives could not comment directly on Match Group's lawsuit, but in an interview with Mashable earlier this month, Herd suggested her team would file against it.

"We are going to tell our full side of the story in court, and we feel confident in that," Herd told Mashable.

This lawsuit follows repeated efforts by Match Group to buy and to copy Bumble. But Herd has said her company Bumble has no interest in partnering with Match Group.

"Whoever it is we do end up partnering in with the future, another company or individual, or going at it alone and pursing an IPO at some point, we will do whatever speaks to the brand values," Herd told Mashable. "Our brand and our values come before our bottom line."

UPDATE: March 29, 2018, 1:34 p.m. EDT Match Group sent the following statement to Mashable:

"This lawsuit is a petulant and meritless response to our patent, trademark and trade secret claims. Last week, Bumble claimed our complaint was baseless and won’t affect them, and this week they claim it is 'chilling' the sale of their company. They also shockingly claim that our patents issued by the United States Patent & Trademark Office are 'bogus.' We obviously think their lawsuit has no substance and look forward to proving that in court."

A spokesperson Match Group also noted that the lawsuit says Bumble has 30 million users and Tinder has 45 million users. Match Group doesn't disclose monthly active users, but the spokesperson referred Mashable to App Annie numbers that said Tinder has more than 219 million downloads and Bumble has had 16 million downloads.