ENS petitions to stop Unstoppable Domains' patent

Ethereum Names Service petitioned the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) over a trademark obtained by Unstoppable Domains. 

As ENS +0.63% 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. 

Response from Unstoppable Domain

"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.