Law.com has revealed that a number of top attorneys will fight Tinder’s corner in the Match Group vs. Bumble patent infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets case.
Partner Brad Caldwell and associates John Summers and Warren McCarty III of the Dallas-based firm Caldwell, Cassady & Curry will represent Match, along with Partner John Palmer of the Austin-based Naman, Howell, Smith & Lee.
Caldwell has a successful track record in patent infringement and complex commercial litigation, often focusing on digital media and telecommunications cases.
He has played a central role in record-setting intellectual property cases before, defeating Apple over three times and forcing (total) awards of around $1.5 billion.
He has also won against Microsoft and Samsung in the past.
Summers, a magna cum laude graduate of Rice University, and McCarty III, former Editor-in-Chief of the Virginia Law & Business Review, both worked with Caldwell on the Apple verdicts.
Palmer, a trial attorney, mediator and arbitrator, is the former president of both the Waco-McLennan County Young Lawyers and the Waco-McLennan County Bar Association.
He has experience in a range of federal cases, including those sounding in diversity, federal questions, school law, and class action lawsuits.
No appearance has yet been entered for Bumble. Neither Bumble nor Badoo are said to have much experience with IP cases in the USA, save for Badoo vs Michael Geer and Ticonderoga Ventures (trademark case filed in 2012).
Elsewhere, Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg has told Bloomberg that the case is not about pressuring Bumble into an acquisition.
“We’re in a unique situation where we don’t have to buy anything right now,” Ginsberg said. “Our business is doing really well.”
“Companies can be successful in this category without lifting intellectual property off another competitor,” she added.
Her statements come after Bumble accused Match Group of bullying behaviour in an open letter.
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