26 August 2020 | AtoZ Markets – NPPA maintains a money transfer network in Australia that allows customers from different banks to make payments in real-time. It is mutually owned by 13 Australia's largest financial institutions, including Commonwealth, ANZ, Citi, HSBC, ING, Westpac, and Reserve Bank of Australia. With the launch of PayID in February 2018, it became available to the general public for the first time. PayID is an opt-in account addressing scheme that aims to replace existing BSB and account number addressing, making it easier to share account details.
Ripple Faces Lawsuit Over Allegations of Copyright Infringement in Australia
New Payments Platform Australia (NPPA) sued Ripple Labs, a US blockchain-focused company over the PayID trademark. NPPA alleges that Ripple's unauthorized use of the PayID brand and trademark violated Australian trademark law (1995) and Australian consumer law. NPPA said:
"The lawsuit aims to protect Australians from being misled by the launch in Australia of a cryptocurrency payment service using NPP Australia's PayID service name and brand."
NPPA already launched its own version of the PayID trademark in February 2018. More than 60 Australian banks are currently using NPPA's payment platform. By using the platform people can send and receive money 24/7 using email addresses and phone numbers. NPPA also said:
"There is a real concern that two services operating in the market with the same name. It will create confusion, opportunities for fraud and scams, and be misleading for customers. They may assume the protections that apply to NPPA's PayID service also apply to the Ripple PayID."
However, Ripple launched a similar PayID brand service in Australia in June 2020. It was part of an Open Payment Coalition (OPC) with 40 global partners. Ripple also describes PayID as a breakthrough in the number of siloed payment networks in the world. Moreover, PayID makes it as easy as sending an email or text message.
Both PayID platforms provide customers with a unified ID to send and receive payments. Moreover, an online court hearing held on August 20. A case management hearing held on the morning of August 26.
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