Ripple Files Trademark for Possible New Payments Service

Ripple, the San Francisco-based blockchain payments infrastructure provider, has registered a trademark for a possible new product called "PayString."

• Filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) late last week, the application is classified in the U.S. under the general categories "Advertising and Business" and "Insurance and Financial."
• A logo for the branding takes the form of "a stylized circle design with four lines radiating from it" in multiple colors.

• It's tempting to speculate as to what the new trademark will be used for, but there's not a lot of information to go by.
• The filing describes use cases in "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."
• All of which does fit in with Ripple's existing business model of providing distributed ledger-based technology for payments between institutions such as banks and money senders, some of which use the XRP cryptocurrency.
• The USPTO filing for RippleNet, the firm's primary offering, has the same description.
• CoinDesk reached out to Ripple for more information but did not receive a reply by press time.

Also read: Ripple Opens Dubai HQ as Blockchain Firm Mulls Leaving US