Metaverse trademark filing signals US Air Force’s strong interest in entering virtual territory

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A new player is coming into the metaverse seeking to leverage the capabilities of the technology for military. With a trademark patent filed, the United States Air Force is going all the way into the metaverse.

The U.S. Air Force has filed an interesting trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). According to the application, the Air Force seeks to trademark the word “SpaceVerse” as part of their push into metaverse territory.

The application document referred to the SpaceVerse as “a secure digital metaverse that converges terrestrial and space physical and digital realities and provides synthetic and simulated extended-reality (XR) training, testing and operations environments.” 

Moreover, the U.S. Air Force trademark application is an expansion of the potential use cases of the metaverse, and while military applications are a first, some other departments of the armed forces have already announced blockchain plans. In November 2021, the U.S. Navy linked up with Consensus Network to create a blockchain-based project to improve medical supply lines for members, while the Space Force announced non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to commemorate the moon landing.

The metaverse has been rising in prominence but reached a crescendo on the heels of Facebook changing its name to Meta last year. Metaverse digital projects like Sandbox and Decentraland rallied by double digits within hours of the announcement, while Citi Research predicted that the industry might be worth over $10 trillion.

Brands are making their metaverse patents

Top brands are staking their claims in the metaverse by scrambling to register their patents. Earlier this month, Mastercard filed 15 metaverse-related applications with USPTO, while Nike and the New York Stock Exchange have made similar applications.

Aside from filing patents, significant progress has been made by leading brands in the metaverse. Nike launched Nikeland in the Roblox metaverse and claims that over 7 million people have visited the platform. Similarly, Samsung launched a replica of its real-world store in Decentraland while JP Morgan, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton have made a push into the metaverse.

In the far East, Japan and South Korea are adopting a nationalistic outlook for their metaverse development. South Korea’s government announced that the country plans to stimulate the ecosystem with a $186.7 million fund with plans to deploy the technology for education and media.

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