Three’s a crowd – Tinder sues threesome App 3nder

It appears Match Group, the owners of dating app Tinder, have or are shortly intending to launch trade mark infringement action in the UK against new threesome rival app 3nder.

Tinder reportedly issued a cease and desist letter to 3nder in December 2015 demanding that 3nder shut down its website and remove all references to its name.

Tinder claimed that the similarity between the apps’ names could cause confusion for consumers. It argued that “phonetically, the infringing mark is closely similar to the Tinder mark, as the obvious pronunciation of ‘3nder’ is ‘Thrinder’, which rhymes with Tinder”.
3nder have responded with outrage at the claims arguing that Tinder’s name is not dissimilar to the preceding gay dating app Grindr and that Tinder do not have a monopoly over the “-nd(e)r” suffix.

In protest, on Monday 23 May 2016, 3nder launched a social media attack on Tinder encouraging its users to send pictures of their dirty socks to Tinder with the hashtag #TinderSuckMySocks in the hope that it will discourage Tinder from proceeding with the lawsuit.
We will keep you abreast of any developments.