The developers of the decentralized exchange (DEX) Bancor have filed a lawsuit against competitor Uniswap, seeking damages for the alleged infringement of its patent.
According to the lawsuit, the defendant used the automated market maker (AMM) without permission and profited significantly from it.
Bancor patented the technology developed in 2016 in January 2017. Uniswap employed it in the protocol launched in November 2018.
“Bprotocol Foundation and LocalCoin demand compensation for Uniswap Labs’ unlicensed use of Bancor’s patented technology and for inducing Uniswap Foundation to infringe,” the document states.
According to Dune Analytics, Bancor’s market share in the DEX space is 0.005% compared to Uniswap’s 40.6%. Over the past seven days, Bancor’s turnover reached $3.69 million, while Uniswap’s was $29.41 billion.
“If companies like Uniswap are allowed to operate unchecked, it will hinder innovation across the industry to the detriment of all DeFi players,” noted Bancor.
In May, Uniswap added support for the L2 solution Soneium from Sony’s blockchain division.
In March, the DEX community voted on two governance proposals to fund new Uniswap Foundation funds with approximately $172 million in UNI.