According to a previous report by Zombit, Matter Labs, the developer of Ethereum L2 network zkSync, had previously registered “ZK” as a trademark in order to compete with the already issued Polyhedra Network for the ZK token code.
Despite strong opposition from several prominent figures in the ZK technology field, including co-inventors of zero-knowledge proofs Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali, Polygon co-founders Sandeep Nailwal and Brendan Farmer, and StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, Matter Labs had still issued a statement at that time firmly stating that their purpose in applying for the ZK-related trademark was to ensure that the term “ZK” could be freely used in the context of names like “ZK Sync” and “ZK Stack,” stating that “whether you like it or not, trademarks are the only legal tool available today.”
However, today, Matter Labs suddenly announced that they will abandon all trademark applications for the term “ZK.” In the announcement, Matter Labs wrote: