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A David vs Goliath battle unfolding in the dating app industry

Al Jazeera

More than a decade ago, when Shahzad Younas started a website specifically for Muslims to meet and marry, he thought his problems would be the typical kind – attracting users, expanding the business, earning a profit. Instead, his biggest hurdle has been figuring out how to fend off a competitor that is suing him in multiple countries on multiple fronts with the aim, he said, of "stifling competition". Younas, 38, a British investment banker turned entrepreneur, has been butting heads since 2016 with the online dating giant Match Group, which owns Match.com, At issue are elements of his website's branding – elements that Match has argued create confusion between its platforms and Younas's. The latest blow came in late April when Younas lost a trademark appeal in the United Kingdom.