Unstoppable Domains made headlines in January after announcing the approval of its first patent, US11558344, credited to Braden River Pezeshki, Matthew Everett Gould, and Bogdan Gusiev. This patent incorporates blockchain technology to ascertain domain names and was submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2021. However, concerns have arisen regarding the patent's originality and relationship to existing innovations.
The patent approved for Unstoppable Domains is alleged to rely significantly on innovations developed by the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) without introducing novel innovations of its own, as noted in an open letter. ENS operates as a decentralized naming system built on the Ethereum blockchain, aimed at associating human-readable names with machine-readable identifiers like Ethereum addresses and content hashes. The claim suggests that the patented technology mirrors elements of ENS's open-source design and publicly implementable standards.
Unstoppable Domains' response to inquiries about the patent's nature has been reportedly elusive. The company announced its intention to award the patent to the Web3 Domain Alliance, an industry group founded by Unstoppable Domains. However, skepticism arose regarding the binding nature of this commitment, emphasizing the need for legal assurance behind the company's public relations declarations regarding the patent.
In response, ENS Labs expressed readiness to challenge the patent's validity, contending that the patent is derived entirely from their prior invention. They expressed willingness to demonstrate their stance. Meanwhile, Matthew Gould, one of Unstoppable Domains' purported inventors, extended an open invitation to join the Web3 Domain Alliance, emphasizing the aim of allowing multiple naming systems to collaborate beyond just ENS and Unstoppable Domains.
This issue sparked significant attention within the crypto community. Concerns were raised about requiring entities to join the Web3 Domain Alliance to access the patent's technology, seen as contrary to the principles of open source. The requirement was regarded as a potential threat to the open collaboration ethos, eliciting concerns from figures like Bob Summerwill, the executive director of the ETC Cooperative, who highlighted the legal implications and limitations of the commitment made by Unstoppable Domains.
