Several Ethereum-related projects, including StarkWare, Polyhedra, and Polygon, criticized Matter Labs' attempt to trademark "zero-knowledge" in a joint statement on May 30.

The statement, signed by industry leaders such as Polygon co-founders Sandeep Nailwal and Brendan Farmer, StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, Polyhedra Network co-founder Tiancheng Xie, and Turing Award winner Shafi Goldwasser, emphasized:

"ZK is a public good"

Zero Knowledge (ZK) blockchains are popular for enhancing security and scalability for developers by leveraging the security of existing layer-1 blockchains like Ethereum. These blockchains help decentralized applications (dApps) achieve higher throughput and faster transactions while protecting users' personal information and reducing costs through batched transactions.

Experts argue that "ZK is a public good that should belong to everyone," and that Matter Labs' trademark attempt contradicts the ethos of crypto and Ethereum. They stated:

"ZK should remain a public good. It shouldn’t be a trademark of a corporation: it should rather be accessible for all."

Polygon echoed this sentiment, stressing the importance of openness in Ethereum, particularly concerning core mathematical principles. They warned that monopolizing zk technology could harm users through confusion and noted that zkSync would not exist without the zk technology developed by Polygon Labs.

The crypto leaders urged the community to demand Matter Labs withdraw its trademark applications.

Matter Labs' response

Matter Labs CEO Alex Gluchowski responded by expressing his opposition to intellectual property concepts. He stated that the trademarks were intended to protect crypto users, not the company.

Gluchowski explained:

"All the trademarks we had ever registered, including ZK-related ones, are defensive, to prevent dishonest actors from misleading their customers and confusing their products and services with the ones offered by Matter Labs."

He also mentioned that Matter Labs had contacted the Ethereum Foundation’s legal team to collaborate on creating a legal framework for using "ZK" and similar critical tech terms in the public domain.