Tinder has made moves to shut down a dating app that only contains one male profile.
Shinder was built by British entrepreneur Shed Simove to help him find a partner, who decided to hedge his bets by admitting his own profile as the sole male account.
Using the tagline “Quality, not quantity”, the app lets you swipe left and right on Simove’s profile – if you swipe left, you are shown a message reading: “You dodged a bullet there, Shed is extremely high maintenance.”
Simove’s profile on the app reads: “Performer, author, novelty gift and adult toy designer, motivational speaker, Guinness World Record holder and egotist. Can cook a mean globe artichoke and is the most exciting date ever. Hit me up. Boom.”
However, when Simove tried to trademark the company, he received a legal notice from Tinder trying to block the application.
The Hollywood dating company filed a Notice of Threatened Opposition to the Intellectual Property Office.
Simove, who is a comedian, author and motivational speaker, also received a separate letter from lawyers representing the US elevator firm Schindler, according to the BBC.
Speaking to the BBC, Simove said: “I think it’s a case of a big corporate giant looking at an entrepreneur who sees the world differently and being punitive.
“It’s unlikely that the female population will stop using Tinder and start using Shinder.”
When he launched a marketing push for Shinder in February, the product received coverage in The Verge, the Metro, the Mirror and RT.
Last year, Tinder started legal proceedings against London threesome dating app 3nder, over similarities between the brand’s name and logo.
The lawsuit caused 3nder to rebrand to Feeld in August.
Read more about the lawsuit here.