Consumer brands are increasingly embracing the world of NFTs and metaverse, as they believe that is the future path to remain connected and relevant to their target customers. The latest to announce plans for the metaverse is the iconic American restaurant chain McDonald’s.
It has registered 10 trademarks in the virtual space, including its McCafe brand.
Trademark attorney Josh Gerben tweeted that the company has filed 10 applications indicating its plans to offer “a virtual restaurant featuring actual and virtual goods” and “operating a virtual restaurant featuring home delivery”.
Gerben, who claims to have registered more than 7,000 trademarks for his clients, told Forbes that he expected every brand to make such trademark filings for the metaverse in the next twelve months. The average time for the US Patent and Trademark Office to review an application for a trademark is about nine and a half months.
McDonald’s joins bakery and café chain Panera Bread who submitted a similar trademark application for a virtual restaurant and café chain called Paneraverse, who filed a similar application just day ago. Panera Bread’s plans also include downloadable content, NFTs, virtual food and beverage items, and other virtual facilities where users can assemble.
As per the metaverse, it plans to offer virtual food and beverage products, downloadable multimedia files containing artwork, texts, audio and video files and NFTs. It will also provide entertainment services such as online actual and virtual concerts and other virtual events.
Gerben believed that neither McDonald’s nor Panera Bread would have any trouble in gaining approvals for their respective trademarks.
In virtual concerts, McDonald’s would be competing against other emerging virtual concert organizers like Animal Concerts that has recently partnered with South Korea’s Klaytn blockchain network to bring leading global music entertainment stars to the metaverse.
The partnership is expected to help Klaytn increase the number of NFTs traded on the platform. Klaytn, incidentally, is one of just three blockchains with native support on OpenSea.
Such concerts eliminate geographical barriers that have prevented fans from seeing their popular artists perform live and the problem exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic. It also reduces the costs of travelling significantly.
With more and more global brands announcing their plans for the metaverse or launching NFTs, the economic activities surrounding the virtual space is only slated to increase further.
