The founder and lead developer of Ethereum Identify Service (ENS), Nick Johnson, is urging blockchain domains firm Unstoppable Domains to drop a just lately awarded patent or face a lawsuit, according 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 expertise that makes use of blockchain expertise to decide domains. The patent request was filed with america Patent and Trademark Workplace in 2021.
In accordance to Johnson, the patent is “primarily based totally on improvements that ENS developed and incorporates no novel improvements of its personal.” The ENS documentation stipulates:
“The Ethereum Identify Service (ENS) is a distributed, open, and extensible naming system primarily based 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 accordance to him, continued makes an attempt to contact Unstoppable Domains concerning the difficulty have failed in current months.
“UD has subsequently issued a press launch ‘pledging’ its first patent to the Web3 Area Alliance, an trade group based and run by Unstoppable Domains. We admire the sentiment behind this, however regrettably, press releases aren’t 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 “prepared to problem this patent, which we consider is totally spinoff of our personal innovations; a place we’re ready and keen to show,” Johnson warned.
One of many alleged inventors from Unstoppable Domains, Matthew Gould, responded within the thread, extending an open invitation to be a part of the Web3 Area Alliance, the blockchain area registry group allegedly pledged with the patent. Gould additionally argued:
“I feel your proposed resolution doesn’t consider the truth that we wish there to be a number of naming programs – not simply ENS – and the one manner to be certain 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 direct response.
The thread caught the eye of the crypto neighborhood. Bob Summerwill, government director of the Ethereum Basic Cooperative (ETC Cooperative), noted that requiring organizations to be a part of the Web3 Area Alliance for rights over the expertise can be a direct assault on the open-source ethos.
“Additionally, Matt, this prior pledge is just not the identical as we’re speaking about, as a result of authorized entities want to ‘be a part of the membership’ to profit from the patent pledge. You’re retaining the proper to patent assault anyone who doesn’t comply and be a part of your alliance.”
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