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 and 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 non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

GM has filed a pair of new applications to trademark:
Chevrolet
Cadillac

The applications cover NFT-authenticated media files.#NFTs #Web3 #GM #Chevy #Cadillac pic.twitter.com/otf2PNH3fP

— Mike Kondoudis (@KondoudisLaw) February 21, 2023

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.

January was no different with Web3, NFT, Metaverse and crypto-related trademark applications filed by pet food firm Pedigree, Nationwide insurance company, 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 patents in 2022, the intellectual property lawyer noted.