Sugar Daddy Dating Sites Battle It Out in Trademark Lawsuit

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Seeking Arrangement (Seeking.com), a popular dating service that connects men and women who are looking for an arrangement, filed a lawsuit against a competing dating site—Successful Match (SuccessfulMatch.com). Seeking Arrangement alleges that Successful Match appropriated trademarked phrases that the dating service has used on its website for years. The targeted phrases include “mutually beneficial relationships” and various hashtags using the word “seeking.”

Seeking Arrangement is owned by companies that own a multitude of other matchmaking websites. The complaint describes Seeking.com as providing “[i]nternet based social networking, introduction, and dating services.” The website, which was launched in 2006, narrows down the process of finding an affluent match to three simple steps—“joining, defining, and arranging” and distinguishes itself as the “leading dating site where over 10+ million members find relationships on their terms.”

On September 11, 2020, Seeking Arrangement filed a complaint in the District Court in the Northern District of California alleging that SuccessfulMatch.com utilized the foregoing phrases in advertisements for their own website and services. According to the complaint, the unauthorized use of the trademarked material is “likely to deceive consumers.”

The company is looking for an injunction as well as “actual damages, Defendants’ profits, enhanced damages and profits, reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs of the action under Sections 34 and 35 of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1116, 1117.”

Seeking Arrangement is represented by Mark L. Smith and Jacob L. Fonnesbeck of Smith Washburn LLP.

The case is Reflex Media Inc. et al. v. Successfulmatch.com et al., case number 3:20-cv-06393, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.