cryptonews.net
Ethereum Name Service ($ENS) has petitioned 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 utilizes technology that $ENS had developed and open-sourced. In a statement on social media platform X, $ENS explained that UD obtained a patent for technology that $ENS Labs developed with the intent of being open-source..
Both $ENS and UD provide domain name and wallet services with top-level domains (TLDs) such as .crypto, .eth, and similarly branded names that form an affinity with the crypto space. $ENS alleges that UD patented “$ENS’s pioneering technology, directly leveraging our open-source innovations” and that $ENS’ contributions were even cited in the patent.
In response to the petition, Unstoppable Domains founder Matthew GOULD stated on X that the patent had been reviewed by an examiner with references to $ENS. Gould argued that the patents are valid and that “filing patents is very common in both web3 and the domain industry.” In this regard, Nick JOHNSON, the lead developer of $ENS, asked Gould to cite a key innovation in the UD patent that was not yet part of $ENS. At the time of writing, Gould had not yet responded to Johnson’s request.
Image: Consensys