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 UDs 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 GOULDstated 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 Johnsons request.