The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the world's largest stock market, has filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to register the trademark "NYSE" for a variety of products related to the metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Trademark attorney Michael Kondoudis initially broke the news of the application.
The application suggests that there are plans "to register the NYSE trademark for NFTs, cryptocurrencies, digital art, and platforms in which to trade them," Kondoudis wrote. Filed on Feb. 10, the new trademark application suggests that the NYSE intends to provide an online marketplace for buyers, sellers, and traders of "downloadable digital assets," namely, NFTs and NFT collector series, digital collectibles, digital tokens, and digital art.
The filing also lists "virtual reality" software, and software for digital, virtual, and crypto wallets. It also includes "software and application programming interface (API) for sending, receiving, accepting, buying, selling, storing, transmitting, trading, and exchanging digital currency, virtual currency, cryptocurrency, digital assets, and blockchain."
In another section, the mark includes "cryptocurrency trading services" that would facilitate the "financial exchange of virtual currency." Notably, this is not the U.S. exchange's first foray into NFTs. In early 2021, the NYSE minted NFTs from the first trading done on the shares of six major U.S. companies, including Spotify, Snowflake, Unity, DoorDash, Roblox and Coupang.
Meanwhile, as reported, U.S. fast-food giant McDonald's filed 11 trademark applications earlier this month that directly reference restaurants, cafes, concerts and other virtual services, goods and events. Prior to this, Walmart and Crocs had filed trademark applications hinting that they aim to offer virtual goods, digital assets and NFTs.
