2024-06-03
On June 2, 2024, Matter Labs, developer
of an Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, zkSync, decide to drop attempts to
obtain intellectual property rights to trademark the term “ZK” that stand for
“zero knowledge” proofs.
According to a post on X, Matter Labs
decided to drop all attempts to trademark “ZK” after the negative response from
the community.
The controversy began when Matter Labs
filed for the trademark, which was seen as an attempt to claim ownership over a
widely used term in the cryptographic community.
This move was met with criticism from
competitors and industry experts, who demanded the withdrawal of the
application, calling it an “absurd IP grab” and "oppressive behavior".
In response to the community’s
reaction, Matter Labs decided to withdraw their trademark applications,
aligning with the ethos of the crypto and academic communities that advocate
for open and shared development in the field.
This decision was likely influenced by
the strong belief within the crypto space that foundational technologies like
zero-knowledge proofs should remain in the public domain and accessible to all.
