Case Study: NPP Australia
The problem
NPP Australia Limited (NPPA), a joint venture public company mutually owned by the Reserve Bank of Australia and 12 authorised deposit taking institutions (ADIs), sought advice in relation to is Australian registered trade mark, "PAY ID", for electronic payment services. PayID is an alias-based payment routing service offered by NPPA in Australia which was launched to the public in 2018 and supported by over 90 financial institutions across the world. Ripple Labs Inc, a US blockchain company valued at $10bn, launched a global PayID branded open-source electronic payments service with its partners in June 2020. NPPA was concerned not only about trade mark infringement, misleading and deceptive conduct and passing off, but also that Australian customers were at particular risk of being targeted by fraudsters and scammers because of their existing familiarity with and high level of trust in the PayID brand.
Our solution
NPPA sued Ripple for trade mark infringement, misleading and deceptive conduct and passing off by advertising, promoting, providing or offering to provide "PayID" branded electronic payment services in Australia without the licence or authority of NPPA. We successfully obtained orders for service outside the jurisdiction, substituted service and short service. On 26 August 2020, Ripple undertook, on a without admissions basis, to block access to its PayID website to Australian IP addresses with effect from 28 August 2020. On 28 August 2020, we successfully obtained an interlocutory injunction from the Court. The parties then negotiated a settlement to resolve the matter.