Quick take:
- Walmart filed several patents towards the end of last month that signal plans for the metaverse.
- The company is planning to create its own cryptocurrency and also has plans for NFTs.
- Walmart intends to make and sell virtual goods like electronics, home decorations, toys, and sporting goods in the metaverse.
Very soon you could be furnishing your metaverse space with virtual electronics from one of the world’s largest retailers, Walmart. The company filed several patents at the end of last month related to cryptocurrencies and NFTs, sending signals that it may be about to leap into the new virtual world.
According to the application sent on Dec. 30, the company seems to be preparing to launch its own cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The patents indicate that Walmart intends to make and sell virtual goods like electronics, home decorations, toys, sporting goods and personal care products.
In another filing, the retail giant said it will create a virtual currency for users as well as NFTs. Walmart successfully submitted seven separate applications that have been deemed a giant step into the metaverse of retail.
The company won’t be the first multinational corporation to jump into the metaverse train. Apparel and fashion design companies have been leading the US retail industry into the new virtual world. Nike chose the more assured approach by acquiring an already popular brand in the world of NFTs, RTFKT, pronounced “artifact”, allowing it to create its own brand of virtual sneakers. The footwear and apparel giant has teamed up with Roblox to create a digital world called Nikeverse.
More recently Perfect Corp, the wearables, fashion and beauty company followed a string of other fashion brands into the metaverse.
Although Walmart decided against divulging details of the specific trademark filings, it said it continues to explore new and emerging technologies that are likely to shape the future.
“We are testing new ideas all the time,” the company said. “Some ideas become products or services that make it to customers. And some we test, iterate, and learn from.”
Commenting on some of the patents, Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney, told CNBC the intensity and language used in the trademarks showed a lot of planning had gone on behind the scenes about how the company was going to approach cryptocurrencies and the metaverse.
Gerben said that most of the filing for patents including, most recently Abercrombie & Fitch, Urban Outfitters and Ralph Lauren are doing it to try to protect their Intellectual Properties as the metaverse continues to attract more brands.
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