Maker Foundation Tried and Failed to Register 'DEFI' Trademark

In a bid to keep the decentralized finance space free of scam artists, DeFi ecosystem Maker attempted to trademark the term "DEFI.".

According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Maker Ecosystem Growth Foundation registered a trademark application for DEFI last January.

Slang for 'decentralized finance,' the trademark was not granted and Maker is no longer seeking the application.

The Maker Foundation services a decentralized finance ecosystem consisting of two ERC-20 tokens, the dai stablecoin and maker.

"The Maker Foundation applied to trademark"DeFi" with the goal of making it freely available for the whole community to use while also protecting the trademark from being captured by bad actors.

"It's important to know that the Maker Foundation has not been granted the trademark for DeFi and will no longer pursue the mark. We understand that the community is capable of protecting itself. We apologize for any confusion or misunderstanding."

Under current law, the responsibility of defending trademarks falls on the holder of the trademark.

Maker would have held the responsibility to defend its trademark in the court of public opinion.

While the number of products is growing, Maker still holds a competitive edge in terms of ether locked up in contracts.

As of August 23, Maker held some 1.4 million ether in contracts worth an estimated $272 million at press time.