Payments giant Visa has filed two trademark applications covering a wide range of cryptocurrency products and services, including its own crypto wallet. The filings also mention crypto transaction management and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Visa’s New Trademark Applications
Visa has filed two trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Mike Kondoudis, a USPTO-licensed trademark attorney, tweeted Thursday:
Visa has filed 2 trademark applications claiming plans for managing digital, virtual, and cryptocurrency transactions, digital currency + cryptocurrency wallets, NFTs + virtual goods, providing virtual environments … and more.
Filed on Oct. 22, the applications’ serial numbers are 97643605 and 97643607. Visa International Service Association, a subsidiary of Visa Inc., is listed as the owner of the trademarks.
An excerpt of one of the trademark applications reads: “online non-downloadable software for management of digital transactions; non-downloadable virtual goods; non-downloadable virtual goods, namely, a collectible series of non-fungible tokens; online non-downloadable software for use as a digital currency wallet and storage services software; online non-downloadable software for use as a cryptocurrency wallet.”
Visa has been active in the crypto space for several years. The company has partnered with more than 65 crypto firms, including exchanges and wallet service providers, to enable crypto payments at over 80 million merchants.
In January 2021, Visa CEO Alfred Kelly revealed his company’s plan to enable crypto trading on its network. Anticipating crypto becoming “extremely mainstream,” he said Visa is diving into crypto “in a very, very big way.” In December 2021, the payments giant launched crypto advisory services. In May 2020, Visa filed a patent application for a fiat-linked cryptocurrency system using “a private permissioned distributed ledger platform.”
A growing number of companies have filed trademark applications relating to crypto and the metaverse with the USPTO. Last week, Paypal and Western Union filed trademark applications for a variety of crypto services. Earlier this month, Formula One filed eight trademark applications for “F1” covering many crypto and metaverse products and services. Ford similarly filed 19 trademark applications last month. E-commerce giant Ebay filed two in June, Facebook owner Meta filed five in May, and Mastercard filed 15 related trademark applications in April.
Would you use Visa’s crypto wallet if it’s launched? Let us know in the comments section below.
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