The latest reports indicate that the United States Air Force has filed a trademark application, which hints that the military branch is possibly seeking ways to expand into the metaverse.
Based on an April 14 application that was submitted to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Department of the Air Force trademarked the word “SpaceVerse,” which was defined 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.”
It is not clear whether the initiative is connected to the United States Space Force, which according to its official website is “organized under” the Air Force, but it works as a separate and unique branch of the armed services.
The United States Air Force has filed a trademark application for SPACEVERSE for a metaverse that
1⃣ converges terrestrial and space physical and digital realities
2⃣provides extended-reality training, testing, and operations environments#Metaverse #Web3 #USAF #Space pic.twitter.com/OVkcnKvX6M— Mike Kondoudis (@KondoudisLaw) April 19, 2022
This trademark application linked to activities in the metaverse came after several others from various companies including the credit card firms America Express and MasterCard, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and apparel and footwear manufacturer Nike. These applications included trademarks on the use of logos and branding in a virtual environment and validating specific files using nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
Some of the major brand names have launched several virtual stores and many other environments for the users after Facebook’s announcement last October that the company would be rebranding to Meta.
In February 2022, U.S. bank JPMorgan joined the metaverse by launching a virtual lounge in the blockchain-based online world Decentraland. Moreover, Samsung also unveiled a virtual store that is modeled after a real-world shop in New York City.
Among the six branches of the United States military – Coast Guard, Marines, Space Force, Air Force, Navy, and Army – the Space Force, Air Force, and Navy have already announced major initiatives that are aimed at integrating blockchain technology and in some cases adopting digital assets.
In June 2021, Space Force confirmed that it would be releasing some NFT versions of patches and coins that are designed for the launch of one of its vehicles. On the other hand, the US Navy also signed a $1.5 million deal with Consensus Networks to create a blockchain-powered logistic system referred to as HealthNet.
