Meta Platforms, the social media giant previously known as Facebook, has filed eight new trademark applications that point to its growing interest in digital currencies, Web3 and the metaverse.
Filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the applications relate to its blue, two-loop logo that it launched during its rebranding as Meta in November 2021. It describes this logo as “a geometric design consisting of two loops.”
The applications include one relating to the design and development of computer hardware and software on Web3 such as gaming and e-commerce. In another it files an application relating to online dating and social networking services, including specifically singling out networking between digital currency investors.
The other applications touch on virtual reality activities such as entertainment and electronic publishing services; telecommunication services for electronic assets; advertising via virtual or augmented realities and the metaverse; and downloadable software for mobile applications.
Meta further delves into the digital asset realm by filing an application for financial transaction processing services relating to “blockchain, virtual currency, digital currency, cryptocurrency, and digital assets.”
Speaking on the applications, Michael Kondoudis, a Washington-based trademark lawyer who tracks metaverse and NFT trademark filings at the USPTO, stated, “These filings reflect the company’s strategy for moving into the metaverse. Meta clearly has significant plans for the virtual economy that will drive it.”
“Meta’s latest trademark filings will surely be of interest to participants in the financial sector and beyond.”
While the applications could possibly signal yet another move by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to solidify his company’s position in the metaverse, they could also be just a precautionary measure to protect his company’s brand and logo in the metaverse, even without plans to launch any related product. Several companies have in the recent past been filing trademark applications to ensure that their brands and logos are not used by any other entity in the metaverse.
For all its efforts around building a metaverse, NFTs and even a stablecoin, Meta has managed to make one bad move after another. Its misguided push into the world of digital currencies was stopped dead in its tracks by regulators globally, leading the company to concede defeat and sell the Diem project to Silvergate Bank. It has also recently been sued in Australia (not for the first time) for the many digital currency scams on its platform.
Then, in February, Meta joined the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), an organization masquerading as an agnostic alliance to push digital currency adoption but which is in fact a cabal of wealthy and influential web2 Big Tech leaders out to stifle Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of a peer-to-peer electronic cash. Naturally, COPA has had one goal since its formation one and a half years ago—fight Dr. Craig Wright.
Watch: BSV Stories – Episode 7: What is the metaverse?
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