Xinja facing trademark stoush with Luc Pettett over ‘Dabble’ domain

A planned corporate metamorphosis into a share-trading service by neobank Xinja has run into a trademark fight with a tech entrepreneur.

Xinja chief executive officer and founder Eric Wilson.

A planned corporate metamorphosis by neobank Xinja — handing in its banking licence and emerging as a share-trading service under the new name “Dabble” — could be dead on arrival, after a tech entrepreneur beat it to the trademark for Dabble and is now refusing to relinquish the rights.

Lawyers have been sending “cease and desist” letters and a courtroom stoush may bee looming that could lead to a costly fight over the name and potentially delay Xinja’s shift into investment services.

Luc Pettett, the former co-founder and chief executive of horse racing publisher punters.com.au, said he began planning his next business venture in the finance space in 2019 after selling the racing site to News Corporation in 2017 and leaving the business a year later.

In February he approached the owners of dabble.com and eventually purchased their domain name.

Xinja later announced they intended to launch a product called “Dabble” but have not done it yet.

By October Mr Pettett finished setting up his company in Australia and Delaware and lodged the trademark “Dabble” in the US and “Dabble Australia” in Australia.

Last week Xinja, one of a number of newly created neobanks that interact with customers purely online or via smart phone apps, announced it was walking away from the fintech sector and would hand back its banking licence and remove its transaction and savings products. It blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and a difficult capital-raising environment for its failure.

Xinja chief executive Eric Wilson announced the closure in a letter to customers on Wednesday, with Xinja returning customer deposits and instead switching its focus to a US share-trading product, Dabble.

Xinja has since applied for its own trademarks around the term Dabble, and Mr Pettett’s lawyer has sent off a cease and desist letter.

Luc Pettett, the former chief executive of punters.com.au, has lodged trademarks for ‘Dabble’ and ‘Dabble Australia’. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Daniel Kovacs, principal lawyer at KCL who represents Mr Pettett, said the entrepreneur had made a significant investment in his “Dabble” intellectual property portfolio and had acquired a slew of pertinent domain names as well as seeking trade mark protection locally and overseas.

“A number of these actions appear to predate Xinja’s foray into the space. It has had its application to register ‘Dabble Australia’ as a trademark approved by the Australian Trade Marks Office, which raised no objections and regarded it as unique and distinctive upon examination,” Mr Kovacs told The Australian.

“If and to the extent that there is similarity with Xinja’s proposed mark, this is purely coincidental on Dabble Australia’s part. Even assuming Xinja had made moves towards use, Dabble Australia was not aware of any interest of Xinja in that or any similar mark at the time of devising the trade mark, or applying for its protection. Dabble Australia has a presumptive first-to-file entitlement, and intends to protect its rights.”

A spokesman for Xinja said the company was aware of the trade mark dispute.

“Yes, we are aware that there is some legal correspondence on this matter going on and therefore won’t comment at this stage. Xinja is fully focused on the successful and timely return of deposits to our Bank Account and Stash Account customers at the moment, and can report that as of Sunday morning well over 85 per cent of approximately $250m of deposits held when the process began on Wednesday have been successfully returned, leaving only $31m to go.”

Mr Pettett told The Australian his trading companies were Dabble Australia Pty Ltd, Dabble.com LLC (Delaware) and the domain name Dabble.com, a clear clash with what Xinja is planning.

“So it’s obviously important for me to protect that brand domestically and globally.

“For our public launch we’re focusing specifically on the US market but I plan to headquarter the business in Australia so domestic trademarks are also important.”

He said it was totally unexpected that Xinja would also apply for a trademark.

“I’m not sure what the future will present but I’m very much in love with the brand we’re building. For almost a year now my team and I have been building and really set out a strong sense of brand values that align well to the name Dabble. Like any business, your brand is worth protecting and I’ll protect it.”