trademarks

Car makers, fashion giants and pet food brands seek Web3 trademarks as 2023 rolls on

The first two months of 2023 haven’t seen a slowdown in trademark filings, with recent filings covering automotive, clothing and fast-moving consumer goods.

Despite a broader downturn in related markets, multinational corporations don’t appear to have slowed down on their trademark applications covering Web3, crypto, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and the metaverse.

The month of February — now drawing to a close — saw the likes of General Motors, Lacoste and Walmart making their territory with Web3-related trademark applications. January was an even busier month. 

One of the latest NFT-related filings involved automotive giant General Motors, which filed for two new trademark applications on Feb. 16 covering its Chevrolet and Cadillac brands.

According to the filing, the firm is interested in downloadable digital media files containing collectible artwork, text, audio and video authenticated as nonfungible tokens.

A day later on Feb. 17, French clothing giant Lacoste filed five trademark applications for “CHAMPS-ELYSEES.” The applications detail plans for NFTs, crypto transaction software, virtual clothing, stores for virtual goods and virtual real estate services.

In early February, USPTO licensed trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis shared on Twitter that American multinational retail corporation Walmart had filed trademark applications for the “SamsClub” name and logo.

The retail giant claimed plans for NFTs, blockchain software, virtual reality healthcare, cryptocurrency trading, brokerage and financial services.

One of Sam’s Club’s warehouse store locations. Source: Sam’s Club

January was no different, with Web3, NFT, metaverse and crypto-related trademark applications filed by pet food firm Pedigree, insurance company Nationwide, Irish distillers Jameson, French fashion giant Yves Saint-Laurent and even the National Geographic Society, among others.

Related: Keep an eye out for major company NFT trademark filings this year

Speaking to Cointelegraph last month, Kondoudis said that trademark filings are “reliable signals of future plans to use marks for the products and services listed in the applications.”

Furthermore, despite the bear market, there were record numbers of trademark applications for NFTs, metaverse and crypto-related products in 2022, the intellectual property lawyer noted.

Visa’s trademark applications suggest more involvement in crypto space

The company’s trademark owner applied for its name to be used in software “to view, access, store, monitor, manage, trade, send, receive, transmit, and exchange” crypto and NFTs.

Major credit card company Visa may be planning to explore digital wallet services based on two recent trademark applications. 

According to records submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Oct. 22, the Visa International Service Association filed two applications for its character mark to be used in software “to view, access, store, monitor, manage, trade, send, receive, transmit, and exchange” crypto assets and nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. The filings also suggested the credit card company may be exploring a move into the metaverse, with its namesake used in “virtual environments in which users can interact for recreational, leisure or entertainment purposes.”

Some reports suggest that there are more than 1 billion Visa cards in circulation around the world. The company has previously partnered with crypto firms to offer credit and debit cards tied to crypto payments. The trademark filings followed those of Mastercard, which applied to the USPTO in April to use its logo in the metaverse and o NFTs.

Related: Western Union may be planning to expand its digital offerings far beyond remittances

The credit card company has announced gradual forays into the crypto space in recent years. In March 2021, Visa said it planned to launch a pilot program allowing its partners to use USD Coin (USDC) to settle transactions made in fiat. The company also spent $150,000 to acquire a CryptoPunk in August 2021 as part of an effort for “first-hand understanding of the infrastructure requirements for a global brand to purchase, store, and leverage an NFT.”