Match Group

Match Group has won the lawsuit it brought against dating app Muzmatch for trademark infringement violation.

According to The Guardian, the UK intellectual property and enterprise court ruled in favor of Match, which owns popular apps like Tinder and Hinge. Muzmatch, a niche dating app for Muslim singles, could now be forced to change its name or pay damages, according to The New York Times.

Match Group claimed in the lawsuit that consumers might think Muzmatch was a “sub-brand” of theirs targeting Muslim daters because of its name. Deputy high court judge Nicholas Caddick QC agreed, stating that using “match” in its name “would have led some consumers to assume that the goods and services offered by Muzmatch were somehow connected with or derived from Match,” according to The Guardian.

Dating apps are having a moment since the pandemic began, and new ones have launched this year that are expanding options for how to connect with others beyond just a swipe. 

Tinder and Bumble are by far the most popular apps, but many singles are looking for something different than your typical swiping experience that instead caters to social habits and lifestyles. Elle Magazine highlighted a few new apps to watch in their latest dating app round up, including some noteworthy ones that are following post-pandemic dating needs:

Image: Tinder

Tinder announced the launch of its new feature Festival Mode, designed to bring singles together through their mutual love of live music.

The dating app company partnered with Live Nation, as well as event producers AEG Presents and Superstruct Entertainment to offer users who plan to attend festivals this year the opportunity to connect with other attendees over the app, so they can meet up. Participants can match with others as early as a month before the event, and the app will feature over 20 of the biggest festivals across the globe, including The Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, Stagecoach and EDC Las Vegas, as well as Lollapalooza Paris, Falls Festival in Australia, Sonar in Spain and All Points East in the UK. 

The feature will also include a “Festival Goers” space for those who don’t see their event listed or simply want to be part of “festival culture,” according to Tinder’s press release. Festival Mode will be part of the Explore section of the app.

Match Group triumphed over federal regulators in a lawsuit that would have had them pay $844 million for failing to remove fake messages and profiles from its Match dating app.

According to Bloomberg, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade delivered the ruling and cited the Communications Decency Act, deeming Match a publisher, which means that since the company isn’t creating the profiles but instead just publishing them, they are ultimately protected from blame.  

In 2019, the FTC filed a lawsuit against Match for fraud, saying that it exposed customers to increased risk of being scammed and engaged in other deceptive and unfair practices, including tricking hundreds of thousands of consumers into buying subscriptions. According to Tech Crunch, the agency claimed Match knowingly profited from these practices, and it made deceiving users a core part of its business practices. It also said that 25 to 30 percent of registrations on Match came from scammers. 

Match Group and Visible are teaming up to offer a Singles Registry where users can sign up to receive and send gifts to the single people in their lives. 

The announcement comes as we head into wedding season, a time when singles are often buying gifts for others and not celebrating their own lives. Match Group and the Verizon-owned digital wireless carrier wanted to spread the love (and gifts) a little more, at least for a limited time. The registry will be live from April 4ththrough the 30th.

The website the partners set up is VisibleSinglesRegistry.com, and is open to everyone, not just Match Group app users. When you sign up you can build your own wish list from a curated menu of items, including “Mine” and “Also Mine” tea towels, single serve coffee machines, wine glasses and kitchenware, a “pamper yourself” spa kit, premium memberships to Tinder, Plenty of Fish and OkCupid, and even a foldable one-person kayak for those that like adventure.

If you are a climate change denier, you are likely to find yourself without a date according to a recent study by dating app OkCupid.

The company surveyed 250,000 of its users worldwide and found that 90 percent said it was important their match care about climate change, and it’s the biggest deal-breaker for dating app users. The issue topped both gun violence and gender equality for respondents. This further confirms the company’s surveys over the past three years of over 6 million of its users, where OkCupid found that overall, 81 percent were concerned about climate change.

In fact, according to OkCupid, climate change and environment questions generate 7.5 million responses worldwide, and is the issue where men's and women's views align more than any other.