Ethereum Name Service (ENS) has filed a petition with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to challenge the validity of a patent obtained by Unstoppable Domains (UD) in 2023. ENS claims that UD’s patent uses technology that ENS developed and made open source.
In a statement on social media platform
ENS Update 🧵: In 2023, Unstoppable Domains (UD) obtained a patent for technology that ENS Labs developed as open source. Today we asked USPTO to challenge the validity of that patent and ensure that the Internet remains a collaborative space. Here’s why and what’s at stake. pic.twitter.com/Qxls0kkP6G
— ens.eth (@ensdomains) May 2, 2024
Both ENS And UD offering domain and wallet services with top level domains (TLDs) such as .crypto, .eth and similar brand names that have an affinity with the crypto space. ENS claims that UD has “patented ENS’s breakthrough technology, which directly leverages our open-source innovations” and that ENS’ contributions are even cited in the patent.
“We gave UD every opportunity to avoid this battle: UD refused to make the patent open source and refused to make irrevocable promises not to use the patent at the expense of the community,” ENS said.
In response to the petition, Matthew Gould, founder of Unstoppable Domains, stated on X that the patent had been reviewed by the examiner with the references to ENS included. Gould argued that patents are valid and that “patent filing is very common in both web3 and the domain industry.”
In this context, Nick Johnson, the lead developer of ENS, asked Gould to name the key innovation in UD’s patent that was not yet part of ENS.
Maybe you can summarize it, Matt, for all the people on Twitter who don’t have time to read the entire patent. What is the most important innovation covered by your patent that was not yet part of ENS?
— nick.eth (@nicksdjohnson) May 2, 2024
As of this writing, Gould has yet to respond to Johnson’s question, a lack of response for which the latter posted two cricket emojis.
In his first response to ENS’s thread, Gould argues that Unstoppable Domains has several other patents pending and will continue to file patents to “protect” the company. Gould also mentions that his company made a no-claims commitment over a year ago and considers the matter resolved.
In July 2022, Unstoppable Domains raised $65 million in a Series A round led by Pantera Capital, boosting the company’s valuation to unicorn status at $1 billion. ENS, on the other hand, operates on a series of decentralized smart contracts for an open and public infrastructure.