It is a relatively short jaunt north of San Diego to get to Laguna Niguel, an idyllic, modest-sized coastal city in Orange County. The suburb that boasts a population of a little more than 60,000 recently hosted Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women Summit.
Two of the participants lead companies currently embroiled in a lawsuit alleging intellectual property infringement. Despite the ongoing legal dispute, Match CEO Mandy Ginsberg said she respects Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd.
“I’ve had a great personal relationship with her even through all this,” Ginsberg said.
In its intellectual property infringement lawsuit filed in March of this year, Match alleged that Bumble took its dating app swipe from Tinder (which Match owns). Tinder gained popularity because its app allowed users swipe left to reject other users and swipe right to approve (if both parties swipe right, they can chat).
Wolfe Herd co-founded Tinder – the first dating app to enable women to control messaging with men – before leaving to start up Bumble.
Ginsberg said thousands of companies protect their IP and that she is uninterested in any media drama. She said she believes the lawsuit “was the right thing to do to protect the IP we had.”
Bumble countersued, arguing that Match was deceptive when it made an investment offer and demanded access to the start-up’s business data and strategies.
In addition to its IP battle, Match is in a legal row with Tinder’s co-founders; a lawsuit Ginsberg described as a contract dispute.
California firms and entrepreneurs can protect their intellectual property with the help of a law firm experienced in litigation involving copyrights, patents, trademarks, tradenames and trade secrets.