A major Australian financial services firm is suing San Francisco-based blockchain startup Ripple Labs over a trademark infringement involving the use of ”PayID.” 

According to a court document filed August 21 in the Federal Court of Australia New South Wales Registry, New Payments Platform Australia (NPPA) has sued Ripple over the unauthorized use of its brand and trademark “PayID.” NPPA claims that PayID was first launched in Australia in February 2018 and backed by an AUD$3.3 million advertising campaign to develop the brand name. 

The filing outlines Ripple’s use of a similar PayID-branded service in Australia as part of the blockchain startup’s Open Payments Coalition (OPC), which includes forty partners globally. 

NPPA CEO Adrian Lovney says there is evidence that three of the OPC partners–FlashFX, BTC Markets and Independent Reserve–located in Australia may have “incorrectly believed” there was an association between Ripple and NPPA.

The court document says NPPA allows customers of different financial institutions to engage in real-time payments and create their own PayID as a payment identifier. 

According to the filing, users have registered more than five million PayIDs with ninety participating financial institutions, accounting for one million payments per week. 

Featured Image Credit: Photo via Pixabay.com