Community division on the patent of non-stop domains on the ENS petition
Members of the crypto community have expressed mixed opinions after Ethereum Name Service (ENS) officially challenged a US patent issued in January 2023 for non-stop domains (UD).
On May 2, ENS filed a petition with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) challenging the validity of UD's patent. The company says the move is aimed at ensuring the web “remains a place of collaboration.”
ENS UD believes it holds the patent for the technology it pioneered. “This is not cheating – it is theft. We must fight this to ensure that ENS is unlimited for everyone,” ENS wrote.
ENS added that its organization is “decentralized and for the benefit of the public.” According to the company, the UD patent threatens to distort or destroy their core vision and beliefs. This includes the belief that core web functions should be free and unpatented.
While some members of the crypto community supported ENS's action against UD, others opposed the petition.
Cinemahain Ventures' Adam Cochran believes the UD patent is invalid. Cochrane argued that blockchain names designed by ENS should remain a perpetual public good and open intellectual property.
“One of the key values in this space is to build on open space and not create IP capture,” Cochrane added.
At the DeFi Education Fund, Decentralized Finance (DeFi) advocates expressed their support for ENS. The organization said it agrees with ENS in supporting and promoting open source protocols.
But one crypto community member argued that ENS had “no choice but to attack UD.” The X user claims that ENS “induces their friends not to work with UD” and claims that the firm will tire investors with high fees.
Another X user says this is an attempt to go from NS to gaslight. They argued that a member of the community would not be entitled to property without due process. The user of X urged ENS to keep the complaint in court and not against X.
Related: ENS data from Etherscan now shows up in Google search results
Unstoppable Domains founder Matthew Gould responded to ENS by X and said that ENS is mentioned in the patent along with other blockchain domain systems. UD's founding patent rights are evaluated and enforced by these clauses.
However, ENS founder Nick Johnson responded to Gould's statement on X by summarizing key innovations in their patents that were not already part of ENS. However, Gould did not post further responses to ENS and Johnson.
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