Gatorade virtual sports drinks coming to metaverse, trademark filings suggest

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

More real-world businesses are looking to set up shop in the metaverse. A new filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) by Stokely-Van Camp shows that the beverage company may have plans to offer the Gatorade energy drink in the metaverse.

Stokely-Van Camp, which owns the original rights to market and produces the popular sports energy drink, submitted two applications to have the word Gatorade and the logo of the Gatorade brand trademarked for “virtual beverage products; digital media, namely, artwork, text, audio, video and/or non-fungible tokens.”

The USPTO filing, which was made on April 27, was first pointed out by Josh Gerben, a trademark lawyer whose firm—Gerben Intellectual Property—tracks trademark filings made by companies and also offers patent filing services.

Getting dehydrated from a workout in the metaverse?

Gatorade will have you covered.

Per a trademark filing made on April 27th, @Gatorade plans to soon offer "virtual beverage products."#metaverse #gatorade#web3 #FuelTomorrow pic.twitter.com/4HZbTEoSWM

— Josh Gerben (@JoshGerben) May 3, 2022

The filing could take up to eight to nine months under review by the USPTO. However, the brand acknowledges the potential of the metaverse, the rapidly evolving virtual world that will benefit massively from the blockchain.

Gatorade has been highly successful, holding control of 46% of the sports drink market in 2021, per Forbes’ data. The drink is consumed in over 80 countries in the world.

Expert expects more metaverse patent filings to join existing ones

Gatorade is not the only food and beverage brand to have filed a metaverse token. Earlier this year, the world’s largest fast-food restaurant chain McDonald’s, also filed a metaverse patent with the USPTO.

McDonald’s patent consisted of 10 applications that, among other requests, intended to trademark “Operating a virtual restaurant featuring actual and virtual goods,” and “operating a virtual restaurant online featuring home delivery.”

Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, and Panera Bread have also jumped on the web 3 and metaverse bandwagon. They are joined by other brands like Nike, Walmart, and Sketchers, as well as the U.S. Air Force.

While speaking with Forbes in February, Greben predicted that even more companies would file metaverse patents within the next 12 months. No firm will want to miss out on probably the biggest marketing opportunity since the internet for the patent attorney. 

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

Watch: CoinGeek New York presentation, AR & VR & the Metaverse on Blockchain