‘What a wasteful distraction’: Uniswap responds to Bancor’s patent infringement lawsuit

Uniswap Labs, the firm behind Uniswap DEX, dismissed Bancor’s infringement lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York as a play for attention amid the evolving crypto and DeFi regulatory landscape in the United States.

On Tuesday, Bancor announced that it is suing Uniswap Labs and the Uniswap Foundation for using its patented technology. Bancor claims the project has improperly tapped its constant product automated market maker (CPAMM) infrastructure for over eight years.

“This lawsuit is meritless, and we will defend ourselves accordingly,” a Uniswap Labs spokesperson told The Block via email. “The code for the Uniswap Protocol is public and has been for years. What a wasteful distraction at a time of historic momentum for DeFi.”

Public reaction

Bancor’s suit received intense backlash on social media, with many describing the move as anti-DeFi.

“It is extraordinarily uncypherpunk,” one user on X posted. “I can't think of any compelling reason for this lawsuit in an industry where open source is the norm,” another observer added.

However, some internet commentators criticized Uniswap. The general scrutiny argued that the protocol has leveraged IP laws to prohibit immediate forks of its products, using Business Source Licenses (BSL) to gatekeep its code.

Amid the debate, Uniswap Labs CEO Hayden Adams hinted he would pay no mind to the Bancor saga.

“Possibly the dumbest thing I've ever seen,” Adams tweeted in response to the story. “I look forward to not thinking about this again until a lawyer tells me we won.”