The renowned American food company McDonald’s appears to be prepared to move into the metaverse by filing for ten trademarks in the virtual area.
Trademark attorney and creator of Gerben Intellectual Property Josh Gerben tweeted on February 9, 2022, that McDonald’s submitted a trademark registration on February 4 with plans for “a virtual restaurant featuring actual and virtual goods” and “running a virtual restaurant offering home delivery.”
McDonald’s also included its McCafe brand in the Metaverse trademark application. The brand would be ready to offer virtual food and beverage products, downloadable multimedia files containing artwork, text, audio and video files, and non-fungible tokens. They are also set to provide entertainment services “namely, presenting online actual and virtual concerts and other virtual events.”
“I think you’re going to see every company you can think of making these filings over the next 12 months,” Gerben told Forbes.
“I don’t think anyone wants to be the next Blockbuster and just completely ignore a new technology that’s coming.”
Gerben added
According to Gerben, the US Patent and Trademark Office typically takes eight to nine months to consider these requests. Still, he believes Mcdonald’s will have no issue having the trademarks authorized. Panera Bread company followed Mcdonald’s and filed for the “Paneraverse” on February 3. They are seeking to trademark their downloadable, virtual food and beverage products “for usage in virtual worlds,” as well as NFTs and the ability to purchase genuine things in the virtual world and have them delivered.
Is Mcdonald’s really going all in for the metaverse?
Jonathan Maze, editor in chief at the Restaurant Business magazine, said, “So wouldn’t this suggest they’re just protecting their trademarks on the metaverse?” adding that the company may be filing for the trademarks so that no one opens a McDonald’s in the metaverse.
As reported, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, recently pushed McDonald’s to adopt Dogecoin by pledging to eat a McDonald’s Happy Meal on television. The fast-food business scoffed at the idea and demanded that Tesla add support for the fictional cryptocurrency Grimacecoin in exchange. In the aftermath of the crypto crash in January, McDonald’s also began teasing the cryptocurrency community.
As of now, it’s pretty unclear whether Mcdonald’s is all heads up for metaverse or are they just protecting their intellectual property in the immersive virtual world.
