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Against Long Odds, 3nder Digs in for Legal Battle with Tinder

With a trademark suit looming, 3nder insists it’s not going anywhere.

As you may have heard, 3nder, the self-described "app for open-minded couples and singles" is facing a trademark infringement lawsuit from Tinder, a subsidiary of dating-app conglomerate Match Group.

But 3nder founder Dimo Trifonov insists that your favorite threesome-procuring app isn't going anywhere.

According to legal correspondences obtained by Motherboard, the attorneys for Tinder/Match Group are filing suit in London's High Court alleging trademark infringement and "passing off," or misrepresenting one's goods and services as the goods and services of another.

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The lawsuit represents an escalation on the part of Tinder/Match Group's attorneys, after Trifonov refused to acquiesce to their December 2015 demands that 3nder change its name and its logo within 21 days, among other demands. According to Tinder/Match Group's lawyers, 3nder's name and logo infringe on Tinder's trademark rights because they readily bring to mind Tinder's protected mark both phonetically and visually.

"If I win, all the independent dating apps are going to win with me."

Despite the challenge he anticipates in going up against Match Group—which generates $1 billion in annual revenue—and its highly-paid legal team from RGC Jenkins and Co., one of the UK's most highly-regarded intellectual property firms, Trifonov insists that he and his eight-person team will not cave to Tinder's demands.

The name change and rebranding that has been called for by Tinder, Trifonov says, would be a death sentence for his company.

"If we do that, we'll probably have to close the company," Trifonov said. "We won't have the budget to advertise our new name. We'll lose all the traffic to our website, we're gonna lose all the rankings we have on the App store so far. So asking us for this is kind of asking us to shut down."

3nder, which received a $500,000 investment from a couple of unnamed angel investors in October, has solicited the help of attorney David Melville but is still looking for formal legal representation to help debunk Tinder's claims.

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In its defense, 3nder asserted via press release that the pronunciation of its name does not necessarily rhyme with Tinder, but rather can be pronounced in various ways, including the most common alternative "Threender," or even "Tri-nder." According to the release, the name developed organically as a portmanteu of the words "three" and "friends" → "three" + "friender" → "3nder." Also, the release says, the app caters to a user base very different from Tinder's, and serves a very distinct purpose.

"We think it's impossible to confuse 3nder with Tinder," the company said. "Our mission, our values and our design are distinct from theirs; we harbor zero ambitions to be like them."

To garner support and momentum for their cause, 3nder has taken to the streets via a guerrilla marketing campaign —#TINDERSUCKMYSOCKS. Trifonov said the hashtag came to mind during one of many long work sessions, when he realized he had been so consumed with work that he had neglected to wash his socks.

With the campaign, which has yet to go viral, Trifonov hopes to bring what he refers to as Tinder/Match Group's monopolization of the dating app space to light. Ultimately Trifonov hopes to broaden the issue facing his company to incorporate the trials of other small tech firms who have suffered at the hands of large multinational corporations, who he refers to as the "pimps" of the dating app market.

"If I win, all the independent dating apps are going to win with me," he said "They're going to grow."

It's clear that 3nder, which has over 500,000 registered members and is growing rapidly according to the company at a rate of 980 percent year-over-year in revenue and 30 percent in membership, is facing an existential threat. But Trifonov, who says he's been working 16-hour days since the legal battle began, does not show any signs of letting up.

"We started this thing out of passion," Trifonov said. "But you fight, you know? If you have passion, you fight."