Ripple Launches New Trademark Following PayID Debacle

This August, Ripple was the subject of a lawsuit served up by NPPA, a payment platform serving countless users across Australia. 

The dispute started over the use of the “PayID” name in Australia —  which the NPPA was already using. 

The NPPA claimed that Ripple’s actions constituted deceptive conduct — in breach of both the Australian Security and Investments Act and Australian Consumer Law.

In a statement, the NPPA claimed that Australian investors — as well as regular users of their PayID platform — were at risk, as they could have been liable to confusion arising from the shared name.

PayID — the payment platform run by the NPPA — has served more than 68 million bank accounts ever since it’s launch 2 years ago.

“The aim of this action is to protect Australian consumers and businesses from potential losses or scams that could arise as a result of confusion created from a payments service using the same name.”

Ripple Rebrands 

Back in August, Neil Murray SC —  a counselor for Ripple Labs — stated that they would look for options, wishing to resolve the issue amicably if possible.

Last week, Ripple Labs filed a trademark for their rebranded platform with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. 

Named Paystring, the new trademark has not been explained by Ripple — nevertheless, it is worth noting that the logo used has remained the same except for the name, as well as the trademark description itself. 

“[The]…trademark registration is intended to cover the categories of electronic financial services, namely, monetary services for receiving and disbursing remittances and monetary gifts in fiat currencies and virtual currencies over a computer network and for exchanging fiat currencies and virtual currencies over a computer network.”

Taking into consideration these similarities, it is quite probable that this trademark will be used to relaunch the service in Australia, free of legal issues.