McDonald's Files 10 Trademark For Metaverse-Based 'Virtual Restaurant'

McDonald's registered ten trademarks relating to the metaverse on February 4th, igniting the race for virtual real estate.

McDonald's is the latest large firm to file trademark applications for virtual goods, services, and even virtual restaurants and cafés, following in the footsteps of Meta, Facebook's parent company, and its envisioned virtual world, the metaverse.

Josh Gerben, a trademark lawyer whose company monitors new trademark registrations on a daily basis, was the first to notice the requests on Twitter on Wednesday, pointing out ten McDonald's applications.

The McDonald’s filings, listed February 4, request to trademark, among other things, “Operating a virtual restaurant featuring actual and virtual goods,” and “operating a virtual restaurant online featuring home delivery.” It also aims to trademark “on-line actual and virtual concerts” and other entertainment services within its virtual McCafe.  

“I think you’re going to see every brand that you can think of make these filings within the next 12 months,” Gerben added. “I don’t think anyone wants to be the next Blockbuster and just completely ignore a new technology that’s coming.”

Panera Bread filed for the "Paneraverse" on February 3, seeking to trademark its downloadable, virtual food and beverage items "for usage in virtual worlds," as well as NFTs and the ability to purchase genuine goods in the virtual world and have them delivered.

McDonald's and Panera Bread have joined large firms like Nike, Walmart, and Sketchers in filing identical documents in the last three months to prepare for a future virtual establishment revolution.