Ripple (formerly Ripple Labs) has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Kefi Labs, the makers of a social photo-sharing app called Ripple.
In documents filed on 2nd October in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, the San Francisco startup stated it is seeking $2m in damages against Kefi Labs for infringement, unfair competition and cybersquatting, funds it suggests represent three times of the value of the actual damages sustained.
The 13-page lawsuit goes on to allege Kefi Labs and its employees used domain names such as getripple.io that were "confusingly similar" to Ripple, and were thus likely to cause consumer confusion. Ripple argues it is owed $100,000 in statutory damages per domain name.
Attorney Lawrence Gordon, of Feldman Gale PA, wrote on behalf of Ripple:
As a result, Ripple is seeking to acquire the rights to Kefi Labs' current domain name; encourage the company to abandon a trademark filing for 'Ripple'; and have it ordered to "destroy" all offending products and marketing material.
A video submitted to YouTube, indicates that Kefi Labs founders had applied for the Y Combinator startup accelerator in San Francisco. At press time, the app had a two-star rating on the iTunes app store.
Ripple has asked its terms be satisfied by Kefi Labs within 30 days of the filing, and that it receive a "verified report" that its terms have been carried out. If not, the filing asserts Ripple is prepared to take the case to a jury trial.
Neither representatives from Kefi Labs or Ripple immediately responded to requests for comment.
For more information, read the full complaint below:
Infringement image via Shutterstock