Ethereum Name Service’s lead developer Nick Johnson took to social media to unstoppable Domains on Thursday.
Johnson wrote a series of posts on was made by ENS.
Johnson claims that ENS and Unstoppable Domains tried to discuss the situation outside the social media platform but “failed” to make progress.
He claims that, unlike Unstoppable, ENS “has not filed any patents on our work.”
The issue at hand dates back to January, when Unstoppable was granted a patent – Resolving Blockchain Domains – based on “innovations that ENS has developed and does not contain any new innovations of its own,” Johnson said.
Read more: What is Ethereum Name Service?
“It is not possible for any organization to rely on such a non-binding promise when it concerns core aspects of its business operations. We therefore ask that Unstoppable Domains gives legal weight to its PR obligations, with an unconditional and irrevocable patent commitment,” Johnson continued.
If the two disagree on the issue, ENS “stands ready to challenge this patent.”
Johnson also included screenshots of alleged communications between Unstoppable and ENS.
According to the post, Unstoppable responded to the initial ENS letter about patents, to which Unstoppable said that ENS’ proposed pledge is not “necessary.”
However, Unstoppable agreed to engage in a “constructive dialogue” but urged them to conduct it within the Web3 Domain Alliance rather than directly between the two disputing parties.
In response to Johnson’s open letter, Unstoppable founder Matthew Gould reiterated the open invitation to join the Alliance, although Johnson said the problem was that the patent was not openly licensed.
“No future guarantees can be made that make sense given the changing landscape of the industry. In my opinion, the only solution is to increase cooperation and discussion,” Gould responded.
“We will keep the door open,” Gould said in a final post.
In July, Unstoppable Domains said it was trying to expand the Web3 community by integrating ENS domain names and not flagging them.
The two have been competitors in the past and the move was not made as part of a collaboration between the two, as was made clear to Blockworks this summer.