Ripple Faces Lawsuit From Australia Company Over Trademark Dispute

Ripple Labs is facing a suit from a large financial services company in Australia regarding a trademark dispute, CoinDesk reported.

New Payments Platform Australia (NPPA) said in a court filing that Ripple contravened the Australian Consumer Law and Australia’s Trade Marks Act (1995) by using its label and trademark “PayID” without permission, according to CoinDesk.

NPPA harnesses the PayID name for the service and proxies that comprise a portion of the organization’s inter-banking offerings. Thirteen of the biggest financial institutions in Australia own NPPA as a joint-venture firm.

NPPA claims the brand was rolled out in 2018 in Australia supported by a marketing effort and it has worked since then to build out the brand. NPPA claims that 5 million PayIDs have been claimed, and the service makes up an essential portion of the NPP payments system that it created and runs.

Ripple reportedly rolled out an offering under the PayID brand in Australia with its Open Payments Coalition (OPC). The group has three companies based in the country, which include BTC Markets, Independent Reserve and FlashFX.

In separate news, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that initial public offerings (IPOs) will begin to become more common in the blockchain and digital currency spaces in 2020. Garlinghouse said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that Ripple itself could be one of the firms that could possibly go public.

He said, “In the next 12 months, you’ll see IPOs in the crypto/blockchain space. We’re not going to be the first and we’re not going to be the last, but I expect us to be on the leading side … it’s a natural evolution for our company.”

So far, digital currencies firms have been harnessing initial coin offerings (ICOs). Those tools are an alternative version to an IPO for newer firms that steers clear of a number of the complex regulatory rules involved in the procedure.

In December, Ripple notched $200 million in a Series C funding round.