Australian company takes Ripple to court over alleged violations of trademark laws

Australian financial services company New Payments Platform Australia (NPPA) is suing Ripple for allegedly breaching several Australian trademark laws with what it claims is the unauthorized use of the brand, name and trademark "PayID."

NPPA launched its PayID brand in Australia in February 2018. The brand was accompanied by an AU$3.3 million advertising campaign. 

According to the official court order filed on Friday in the Federal Court of Australia New South Wales Registry, NPPA accused Ripple of passing off "associated claims for aiding and abetting the allegedly infringing conduct" and "associated declarations and injunctions and also damages or an account of profits."

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Per the court filing, Ripple launched a similar PayID-branded service in Australia with 40 partners, forming part of what it called the Open Payments Coalition (OPC). NPPA alleged that by launching the service, Ripple violated Australia's Trade Marks Act (1995), the Australian Consumer Law and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act (2001).

NPPA lawyer John Collins alleged that there is evidence that three of the 40 companies that were a part of Ripple's OPC "incorrectly believed" there was an association between services offered by the NPPA and those offered by Ripple under the PayID trademark.

Customers can use NPPA's PayID with their financial institution as an address or identifier for NPP payments and have that PayID linked to a specific bank account.

About Author

Saniya More (pronounced: Saan-ya Mo-ray) is a quadrilingual journalist at The Block. She got her master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and did her undergraduate degree at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. Her work has appeared in CBS News, Bangkok Post, Thai Enquirer, Globalists, Byline Times and other publications. When she’s not chasing a story, you will most likely find her biking, tweeting, taking photos or creating Spotify playlists for every occasion.