ZK trademark application sparks controversy, zkSync developers face resistance from multiple projects

Original author: Nancy, PANews

As the narrative market maker of the L2 track, the ZK track is facing a trademark battle. Recently, zkSync developer Matter Labs has sparked a number of protests after filing a “ZK trademark application”, including Polyhedra Network, Polygon, and StarkWare.

Polyhedra accuses zkSync of taking the ZK project code, and multiple projects jointly boycott

It all started on May 24, when zkSync’s Token was listed on the exchange Bybit’s spot trading under the name “ZK”, which subsequently caused dissatisfaction with Polyhedra Network, which is also a ZK project, and the Token symbol of the project also happens to be “ZK”. Polyhedra Network tweeted that although ETH ETF has been approved in 2024, there are still projects that “snatch” the project code that others deserve for their own benefit, Web3 is not intended to be a hotbed of bullying, and the project also calls on the community to defend fairness and justice, and even directly named zkSync.

A few days later, Polyhedra tweeted again, saying, "zkSync has never contacted us, and zkSync is constantly spreading rumors among different entities. If every issuance Token project faces the threat of having its project code taken over by a project that invests a lot of money, then the entire industry becomes chaotic and poses significant regulatory issues. Subsequently, Polyhedra changed its Token Code to ZKJ when HashKey Global was listed, symbolizing “ZK Join” – a united, open ZK community. At present, Polyhedra has been listed under the symbol ZKJ on all trading platforms in response to the week-long trademark dispute.

At the same time, Matter Labs has also caused widespread dissatisfaction in the encryption industry as it filed “ZK” trademark applications in nine countries. To this end, Polyhedra, Polygon, and StarkWare jointly released an open letter, in addition to Polyhedra co-founder and zkBridge inventor Tiancheng Xie, Polygon co-founders Sandeep Nailwal and Brendan Farmer, StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, zk-SNARKs co-inventor and Industry leaders, including Algorand founder Silvio Micali, Turing Award winner and ZK-proofs co-inventor Shafi Goldwasser, and Kakarot zkeVM co-founder Elias Tazartes signed the letter, calling on Matter Labs to withdraw its trademark application, calling it an “act of oppression.”

Among them, Polygon tweeted that in keeping with the true spirit of Ethereum, Polygon Labs always releases Open Source code for the benefit of all, a commitment that has positively impacted the entire Crypto Assets space. Polygon Plonky 2 has been widely adopted, and one of the beneficiaries is Matter Labs, whose core ZK technology also leverages Polygon Plonky 2. Despite relying on someone else’s ZK technology, Matter Labs sought to register the “ZK” trademark to potentially restrict others from using the technology. If a company has a monopoly on ZK technology, will users really benefit? Would zkSync exist without the ZK technology developed by Polygon Labs? No, its trademark registration of “ZK” will actually cause harm to users through confusion. Openness is the foundation of Ethereum and must be preserved, especially when it comes to core mathematical principles.

"Matter Labs claims that ZK is its exclusive intellectual property, but they neither created nor contributed to the creation of this technology. By using the legal system to appropriated public resources for themselves, Matter Labs defies the spirit of Crypto Assets, Ethereum, and its own principles. StarkWare tweeted, and Eli Ben-Sasson also said that Matter Labs’ attempt to trademark ZK’s technology was a “ridiculous IP cybersquatting.”

Matter Labs response: Opposing the registration of ZK as intellectual property is to protect users

On May 30, Matter Labs, the protagonist of this “trademark vesting war”, finally posted a response on social platforms, saying that ZK technology belongs to the community and must always be a public property, free and open to all. Matter Labs applied for a trademark related to ZK to ensure that the word “ZK” could be used freely in the context of related names such as “ZK Sync”, “ZK Stack”, etc. Like it or not, trademarks are the only legal tool available at the moment. A common misconception is that owning a trademark means that you legally own a certain word or phrase and can prevent others from using it. However, you do not have a general right to the word or phrase, only the right to use the word or phrase in your particular goods or services. Matter Labs worked to find the right structure for the ZK trademark to make it accessible to all who built ZK’s technology. ZK technology and its terminology should always remain a public good and freely available to all.

Alex, founder and CEO of Matter Labs, also responded that Matter Labs is a fervent supporter of libertarianism, the spirit of Cypherpunk, and the values stated in ZK’s creed, and they oppose the idea of “intellectual property” and release everything it creates to the public under a free and open source license. Trademarks exist to protect users, not companies. All trademarks ever registered by Matter Labs, including those associated with ZK, are defensive in nature to prevent dishonest actors from misleading customers and confusing their products and services with those offered by Matter Labs (which unfortunately has been the case in the past). Previously, Matter Labs reached out to the Ethereum Foundation’s legal team and offered to collaborate on creating a legal framework for “ZK” and similar important technical terms to be used in the public domain, and now the team is asking others to participate in this initiative, especially those projects that have already applied for trademarks related to STARKs.

Prior to this, ZKasino, a zkSync ecological Rug Pull project, had been criticized by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin for not using any ZK technology, and he also expressed concern about the growing mainstreaming of the term “ZK”, believing that the term has been abused to the point that even scammers have begun to take advantage of the buzzword.

Interestingly, the Ethereum L2 project has also come to “plug in”, Taiko said on the X platform that there has been some discussion about the Token code this week, considering that it is fair to everyone, and noting that another project has already used TKO as its code, so it was decided to change the Token code to TAIKO to prevent conflicts and facilitate the listing of the Token.

As for this trademark dispute, the community is also debating endlessly. Some people believe that the original token code for Polyhedra was ZKB, which was later changed to ZK, and there is suspicion of riding on the popularity. Also, according to the X registration timeline, Zksync was registered in 2019, earlier than Polyhedra in 2023. Some people also believe that ZK belongs to the public domain and is not specific to any project. Using this name is nothing but a lack of confidence in their own project, and it is deceptive to investors who do not understand it.

Today, when the brand is becoming more and more important, creating a trademark “golden signboard” has become an effective means to establish wide visibility, and it is also an important weapon for the strategic competition of the project/enterprise market, but various cases in the past have also shown that the product is a more critical factor whether the golden signboard can be polished.

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