NFT and metaverse trademarks double in 2022: BitStacker

NFT and metaverse trademarks have doubled in 2022, as more organisations integrate Web3 applications into their business.

The report from BitStacker.com noted that there were 6,290 trademark requests for NFTs sent to the USPTO between January and September 2022. This contrasts with 2,179 trademark applications in 2021, an increase of 188 percent.

Similarly, there have been over 4,600 requests for metaverse trademarks in 2022 so far compared to just 1,798 in 2021, an increase of over 156 percent.

NFTs first broke through into the mainstream in 2020 when there were just 18 trademark applications for the non-fungible tokens. The metaverse refers to the yet-to-be-developed digital world that companies like Meta are heavily investing.

According to BitStacker, it has been the busiest year ever for NFT trademark filings with a record 1,064 applications made in March 2022. While the number of applications has dropped since then, September 2022 still featured 435 applications filed.

Kris Lucas, an analyst at BitStacker said despite the scepticism over the speculative nature of NFTs, they have been increasingly used by major corporations.

He said, “Recently, brands such as Rolex, McDonald's, Visa, Jack Daniels and Ford have filed NFT and metaverse trademarks applications.

“The continued demand for metaverse products further illustrates the belief that investors have in a ‘virtual’ version of the internet. Despite Meta laying off 11,000 of its staff amid growing costs, such moves have been made in a bid to afford the huge investment required to build the yet-to-be-developed digital world."

While the legal rights over NFTs remain uncertain, they broke through into mainstream use in 2020. From here, the trading of NFTs skyrocketed to over $17 billion in 2021 which is up by 21,000 percent compared to the previous year.

This follows from the rising interest in NFTs following a series of high-profile digital art sales at renowned auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

One of the most notable sales was that of Beeple’s Human One NFT which sold for over US$28 million in November, but this sale has since been eclipsed by other works of digital art including Pak’s The Merg which sold for $91.8 million in September 2022.