zkSync Abandons Trademark Application for ZK

Early morning on June 3 (Vietnam time), Matter Labs, the developers behind Layer-2 zkSync, officially abandoned all efforts to trademark "ZK". This announcement comes amidst criticism from leading researchers in zero-knowledge proof technology.

zkSync Abandons Trademark Application for ZK

In an official post on X, Matter Labs explained the decision, citing the inability to appoint an independent intermediary to own the ZK trademark.

"As a result of these discussions, we have decided to withdraw all trademark applications for the term 'ZK'. These discussions led to an important realization: consensus cannot be reached on appointing a neutral, reliable party to own the copyright," the project stated in the post.

Since the intention to trademark "ZK" for zero-knowledge technology, Matter Labs has faced backlash from several prominent crypto projects. Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO of StarkWare, told Cointelegraph that Matter Labs' attempt to trademark ZK amounted to an illogical usurpation of intellectual property.

"The ZK technology was developed for the common good. It's embarrassing to see a company trying to appropriate the 'ZK' intellectual property as its own. It's like a baker trying to patent bread," he added.

Just three days before Matter Labs' announcement to abandon the trademark, Polyhedra Network, Polygon, and StarkWare issued a joint statement condemning zkSync for attempting to claim exclusive intellectual property rights over ZK.

Leading experts labeled this behavior as "coercive" and called on Matter Labs to withdraw its application to trademark "zero-knowledge" as the company's exclusive intellectual property. The recommendation was endorsed by a host of notable figures, including Polygon co-founders Sandeep Nailwal and Brendan Farmer, StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, Polyhedra Network co-founder and zkBridge and ZK-proofs inventor Tian Cheng Xie, and Turing Award-winning computer scientist Shafi Goldwasser.

"We believe ZK is a shared resource belonging to everyone. A company exploiting legal frameworks to appropriate a public resource violates the values of cryptocurrency, Ethereum, and even academic integrity. It goes against Matter Labs' own stated values," according to a joint letter from the ZK expert community shared with Cointelegraph.

Simultaneously, Matter Labs CEO Alex Gluchowski countered these assertions as mere misunderstandings about intellectual property. In a post on X, he clarified:

"All trademarks we have applied for, including those related to ZK, are defensive in nature to prevent dishonest actors from misleading customers about products and services offered by Matter Labs (as unfortunately happened in the past)."