Nick Johnson, the founder of Ethereum Name Service (ENS), has expressed serious concerns about the patent filings made by Unstoppable Domains in relation to blockchain domain names. In an open letter to Unstoppable Domains, Johnson accused the company of appropriating ENS’ open-source developments through these patent applications.
“All of our work is licensed under open-source licenses, and all our standards are publicly available for anyone to implement,” Johnson wrote.
One specific patent, numbered US11558344 and titled “Resolving Blockchain Domains,” was granted to Unstoppable Domains earlier this year. Johnson claimed that this patent is solely based on innovations developed by ENS and does not introduce any new concepts. He further pointed out that Unstoppable Domains is actively pursuing additional patents, including an application for reserving names similar to the “Sunrise Phase” commonly used in the DNS world.
In an attempt to address the concerns, Unstoppable Domains issued a press release pledging its first patent to the Web3 Domain Alliance, an industry group founded and managed by Unstoppable Domains. However, Johnson stressed that press releases do not have legal weight, and an organization cannot rely on nonbinding pledges when it comes to critical aspects of their operations.
“It’s impossible for any organization to rely on such a nonbinding pledge when it concerns core aspects of its business operations,” Johnson stated. “We are thus requesting that Unstoppable Domains put legal weight behind its PR commitment, with an unconditional and irrevocable patent pledge.”
If Unstoppable Domains fails to meet this request, ENS Labs is prepared to challenge the patent directly. Responding to the criticism, Matthew Gould, CEO of Unstoppable Domains, reiterated the company’s invitation to join the Web3 Domain Alliance, which is the owner of the US11558344 patent.
“We continue to offer an open invitation to join the Web3 Domain Alliance and advance web3 naming for all systems – not just ENS. Just like ICANN was essential to DNS, standards bodies will be essential to web3,” Gould stated.
About Ethereum Name Service (ENS)
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a blockchain-native domain name system that provides users with identity across Web3 and crypto platforms. It operates on a distributed technology based on the Ethereum blockchain, similar to traditional domain name systems. ENS primarily converts machine-readable identifiers like cryptocurrency addresses into human-readable domain names.
Earlier this year, ENS announced its plans to launch a new domain name extension called “.box.”
