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Quick Take
- Ethereum Name Service petitioned Unstoppable Domains’ patent over blockchain naming services with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
- ENS claims that Unstoppable Domains used ENS’s open-sourced technology in the patent.
- Unstoppable Domains’ founder said the patent is presumed valid.
Ethereum Names Service petitioned the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) over a trademark obtained by Unstoppable Domains. As ENS
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explained on the social media platform X, "In 2023 Unstoppable Domains (UD) obtained a patent for technology ENS Labs developed as open-source. Today, we petitioned USPTO to challenge the validity of that patent, and to ensure the web remains a collaborative space." UD administers domain name and wallet services much like ENS. ENS claims UD patented "ENS's pioneering technology, directly leveraging our open-source innovations" and that ENS' contributions were even cited in the patent. "We gave UD every opportunity to avoid this battle: UD refused to open source the patent and refused to make any irrevocable pledges not to use the patent to the detriment of the community," ENS continued on social media. "This is a fight we didn't choose but are fully committed to, for the sake of Web3's future." Ethereum Name Service offers an ERC-20 utility token called ENS. It traded hands at $14.98 at 4:32 p.m. ET on May 2, experiencing a 3.93% increase of $0.57 within the past day, according to The Block's Price page for the token. "ENS prior art was cited on the first page of the patent along with multiple other works for blockchain domain systems, the patent was reviewed by the examiner with those citations in place, the patent is valid, and filing patents is very common in both web3 and the domain industry," said Unstoppable Domains founder Matthew Gould on X. "We have several other patents in process or pending and will continue to file patents to protect ourselves and the web3 domain industry. Verisign, 3DNS (which .box uses), Coinbase, and many others have filed patents. It's a normal thing to do. As previously stated multiple times we've already offered a non-assertion pledge over a year ago and view this issue as resolved," Gould added, stating that the patent is presumed valid. In July 2022, Unstoppable Domains raised $65 million in a Series A round led by Pantera Capital, netting the firm a $1 billion valuation, The Block previously reported. Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures. © 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.Response from Unstoppable Domain
About Author
MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.