A closer look
Match Group holds an ironclad digital patent on the 'swipe right, swipe left' dating app mechanic, preventing rival software developers from using the same directional user interface for matchmaking. They successfully sued competing applications for copyright infringement just because users were sliding their greasy thumbs horizontally across a glass screen to judge strangers based on three poorly lit bathroom selfies. The United States patent office looked at the concept of sorting a digital deck of cards by moving your finger left or right and somehow decided this was a brilliant, unprecedented technological innovation worthy of legal protection. As a result, modern romance is essentially monopolized by a single conglomerate hoarding the intellectual property rights to human superficiality
