The founder and lead developer of Ethereum Identify Service (ENS), Nick Johnson, is urging blockchain domains firm Unstoppable Domains to drop a not too long ago awarded patent or face a lawsuit, in accordance to an open letter shared on X (previously Twitter).
In January, Unstoppable Domains was granted its first patent, US11558344, which claims that Braden River Pezeshki, Matthew Everett Gould and Bogdan Gusiev are the inventors of a know-how that makes use of blockchain know-how to find out domains. The patent request was filed with the US Patent and Trademark Workplace in 2021.
In line with Johnson, the patent is “based mostly totally on improvements that ENS developed and accommodates no novel improvements of its personal.” The ENS documentation stipulates:
“The Ethereum Identify Service (ENS) is a distributed, open, and extensible naming system based mostly on the Ethereum blockchain. ENS’s job is to map human-readable names like ‘alice. eth’ to machine-readable identifiers reminiscent of Ethereum addresses, different cryptocurrency addresses, content material hashes, and metadata.”
Within the open letter, Johnson claims that every one the ENS work is below open-source licenses, with all requirements publicly out there for implementation. In line with him, continued makes an attempt to contact Unstoppable Domains in regards to the subject have failed in current months.
“UD has subsequently issued a press launch ‘pledging’ its first patent to the Web3 Area Alliance, an business group based and run by Unstoppable Domains. We recognize the sentiment behind this, however regrettably, press releases should not legally binding,” Johnson famous within the thread.
“We’re thus requesting that Unstoppable Domains put authorized weight behind its PR dedication, with an unconditional and irrevocable patent pledge.”
The ENS Labs is “able to problem this patent, which we consider is totally spinoff of our personal innovations; a place we’re ready and keen to reveal,” Johnson warned.
One of many alleged inventors from Unstoppable Domains, Matthew Gould, responded within the thread, extending an open invitation to affix the Web3 Area Alliance, the blockchain area registry group allegedly pledged with the patent. Gould additionally argued:
“I believe your proposed resolution doesn’t take into consideration the truth that we wish there to be a number of naming methods – not simply ENS – and the one approach to make sure that future is to have a spot the place everybody (not simply UD and ENS) collaborate.”
Cointelegraph reached out to Unstoppable Domains, however didn’t obtain a right away response.
The thread caught the eye of the crypto neighborhood. Bob Summerwill, government director of the Ethereum Basic Cooperative (ETC Cooperative), famous that requiring organizations to affix the Web3 Area Alliance for rights over the know-how can be a direct assault on the open-source ethos.
“Additionally, Matt, this prior pledge will not be the identical as we’re speaking about, as a result of authorized entities must ‘be part of the membership’ to learn from the patent pledge. You’re retaining the fitting to patent assault anyone who doesn’t comply and be part of your alliance.”
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