Tinder filed a Notice of Threatened Opposition with the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (IPO) against a trademark on the word “Shinder” that denotes an online dating app designed to help women date a single man – its creator, Sheridan Simove. Simove presented the app earlier this year, claiming that the browser-based platform is meant to help him find a partner. The London-based entrepreneur filed for a trademark on Shinder with the IPO in late February, but the UK branch of the U.S. dating service submitted its formal opposition to the trademark on May 3, as revealed by the application’s case history published by the IPO. The move doesn’t imply an immediate legal dispute but does provide Tinder with a longer window of opportunity to dispute the trademark in the future should it deem such an action necessary.
Apart from the Los Angeles, California-based mobile dating service, Simove was also contacted by legal representatives of Schindler, an elevator manufacturer from Ebikon, Switzerland, who asked the creator of Shinder to abstain from entering the elevator and escalator markets, BBC reports. Simove reportedly said that he doesn’t believe Shinder is a market threat to either the elevator company or the popular dating service, adding that women around the world are “unlikely” to migrate from Tinder to Shinder en masse. The 46-year-old asserted that the two companies are in all likelihood just covering their legal bases and aren’t planning to escalate the issue any further. The British inventor and comedian previously revealed he had 150 matches since launching Shinder in early 2017, adding that he’s already been on three dates scheduled through the app. By Simove’s own admission, the main reason why he filed for a trademark on Shinder was because he was contacted by other individuals who were interested in developing a similar digital solution for improving their own love lives.
While Simove reportedly believes Shinder has some commercial potential, he isn’t certain he’d be able to fund a hypothetical legal battle with Tinder. It remains to be seen whether the U.S. dating service decides to take additional measures to protect its trademark, but an update on the situation should be available later this year once the IPO’s extended opposition period for Simove’s trademark application is closer to ending.