Zip Co has been one of the more successful fintech startups of the past 15 years, with the buy now, pay later company now valued at more than $3 billion.
But burying its head in the sand has cost Zip Co a decade of litigation and, now, its brand name in Australia.
The company reacted swiftly to the High Court decision on Wednesday, which found it had no right to use Zip as a name when it formally launched in November 2013. In line with the court’s order, Zip Co advised the ASX it would stop using the “Zip” trade mark locally within 28 days.
Co-founders Larry Diamond and Peter Gray made the apparently common mistake of ignoring the regulator after it advised them in 2013 that non-bank lender Firstmac had registered “Zip” in the same trade mark category — loans — in 2004.
