JetLib News

It appears that Jewish dating site JDate has filed a patent lawsuit against dating sites 2RedBeans, Zoosk, and OKCupid. According to the complaint, JDate alleges that all three companies are infringing the same patent, which states that Sparks Network (JDate’s parent company) has invented a method or apparatus for automating the process of confidentially determining whether people feel mutual attraction or have mutual interests. That’s right, JDate has a patent on detecting secret crushes.

The suit calls out OkCupid’s QuickMatch (which shows when two individuals mutually admire each other); Zoosk’s Scientific Matching Service, and 2RedBean’s Secret Admire function as infringing JDate-owned patent # 5,950,200, titled “Method and Apparatus for Detection Of Reciprocal Interests or Feelings And Subsequent Notification.”

This is an aggressive action considering that secret admiration is part of the foundation for any online dating site. And it seems a little odd that JDate only sent this notice now, after both Zoosk and OKCupid have been using this technology for some time. A claim against 2RedBeans makes more sense as the site only launched this year.

Spark Networks wants the three companies to pay damages to JDate for the infringement. OKCupid, which was recently acquired by IAC’s Match.com for $50 million, confirmed that they received the complaint but declined to comment further.

Zoosk refused to comment at all, and 2RedBeans, a dating site for Chinese-Americans, also confirmed the lawsuit issued this statement: JDate vs 2RedBeans is David vs. Goliath. Our Secret Admirer feature is very different than what JDate has claimed in its method or apparatus for automating the process of confidentially determining whether people feel mutual attraction or have mutual interests.

Photo Credit: Flickr/Cali4Beach

With a little over a week until SXSW begins in Austin, Texas, our inboxes have been hemorrhaging with seemingly every startup under the sun attempting to launch something in time for the festival. Many of these are app-related. And specifically, many are iPhone app-related, which means they need extra time to get approved by Apple. And that means getting things out there this week, just in case. And so it begins.

Today, the location-based service Loopt is launching a new feature which will definitely entice users to check out the app at SXSW: Push Deals.

Yes, the Loopt Android and iPhone apps will now be able to send you deals in realtime based on your location by way of push notifications. This means that if you’re walking by a restaurant and it’s a slow night, they can hit a button to send out a notification to give you a deal to come in. This works on a network like Loopt (as opposed to Foursquare) because the app uses background location to keep track of you.

Obviously, all of these push settings can be controlled by the user in the app, so you’re not getting spammed by deals as you walk around a city. You’ll be able to see the deals that you want, founder Sam Altman says.

And the first test of the system will be at SXSW with some pretty killer deals — Loopt will be giving away over $50,000 worth of merchandise to those using the app in Austin. What kinds of stuff? This kind:

• TiVo is giving away TiVo premiere packages
• Microsoft is giving away Kinects
• Jawbone is doing Jamboxes
• Southwest is giving away free roundtrip tickets
• Altec Lansing is giving away Mix Boomboxes
• Yurbuds is doing Ironman Yurbuds
• Tony Hsieh and Guy Kawasaki are giving away signed books
• And a lot more from people like Fox, Gilt City, OkCupid, and more

“These will all be ‘flash deals’–users get a message with the location at the same time if they’re near the rewards wagon, and there are limited supplies,” Altman says. He also notes that there’s no limit on how often you can win — you just have to be first to get to the wagon mentioned in the message.

Once SXSW is over, Loopt will begin rolling these Push Deals out to select cities.