- Ripple Labs has applied for three new trademarks at the US Patent and Trademark Office.
- The company is apparently planning to introduce a new electronic payment solution called Ripplex, as well as the creation of a new division called Ripple Impact.
San Francisco-based Ripple has applied to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for registration of three new trademarks: Ripple Impact, RIPPLEX and Ripplex (one in upper and one in lower case). As the applications indicate, Ripple apparently plans to launch an electronic payment solution called Ripplex and a charitable foundation called Ripple Impact.
The Ripple Impact trademark was filed just one week ago, on August 19, and was added to the TRAM system of all active federal trademark registrations by the US Patent and Trademark Office on August 22. According to the description, the project could serve a similar purpose to Ripple’s Xpring investment arm, with the new division providing financial support for various financial innovation programs and services:
Charitable foundation services, namely, providing fundraising activities, supplemental funding, capital improvement funding, scholarships and financial assistance for programs and services of others in the field of financial technology.
The second trademark, Ripplex, was already filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office on August 11 with two different logos and appears to be a brand-new Ripple product. According to the description, it will be a software that can process and manage electronic payments in the form of fiat and cryptocurrencies. The description suggests that the solution could also use XRP to provide “currency exchange services”:
Electronic financial services, namely, monetary services for receiving and disbursing remittances and monetary gifts in fiat currencies and virtual currencies over a computer network and for exchanging fiat currencies and virtual currencies over a computer network; […]
financial services, namely, providing a virtual currency for exchange over a computer network; currency exchange services, namely, exchanging fiat currencies and virtual currencies over a computer network; […]
financial transaction verification services, namely, delivering remittances and monetary gifts from a source to a destination; financial management and administration services, namely, facilitating transfers of digital currency, transmission of digital currency via electronic communication networks, and electronic transmission of digital currency.
Further details of the trademark applications are not known at this time, and an official announcement by Ripple has not yet been published.
Other Ripple patent causes trouble
As CNF reported yesterday, another patent, the one for PayID, is currently causing trouble at Ripple. NPP Australia, a payment platform for Australia that has already been adapted by more than 60 Australian banks, has sued Ripple Labs for infringement of intellectual property and protection of the “PayID” trademark. The Australian company had already launched its version of PayID two years before Ripple and now apparently wants to protect its trademark. The suit was filed in Australian Federal Court on August 20, and the next hearing is scheduled for August 26.