McDonald’s & Panera Bread File Trademarks For Virtual Restaurants In The Metaverse

Reportedly, two of the major restaurant companies have filed trademarks for their brand inside the metaverse. McDonald’s and Panera are among the first food chains to do so. We are left wondering about the reasons behind this initiative. The two brands must have undergone the filing process in order to protect their intellectual property. Or the other motive behind this could be to signal a further push into the metaverse. McDonald’s and Panera, the two major US food chains have also filed registrations to sell other digital assets In the virtual world. The filings were first tweeted by trademark lawyer Josh Gerben of Gerben Law.

McDonald’s

The McDonalds filings were listed on February 4^th, 2022. McDonald’s filed trademarks for its McDonald’s and McCafé brand. The filing by this fast-food chain includes the potential for virtual food and beverages. The system will operate through downloadable multimedia files that will include non-fungible tokens. Also, there will be a hosting of entertainment services which will mostly include virtual concerts.

The biggest portion of McDonald’s filing was this “Operating a virtual restaurant featuring actual and virtual goods, operating a virtual restaurant online featuring home delivery.” This means that someday you will be able to visit McDonald’s in the metaverse. Not only that, we will order food in the virtual world, and get it delivered to us in real life.

Panera

Another brand which is expected to go public soon with the help of SPAC USHG Acquisition Corp also filed trademarks related to the metaverse. Panera Bread will be operating new cafes and restaurants under the new name “Paneraverse”. The services will include access to virtual goods that are downloadable. In addition to that, there will also be entertainment services and NFTs in the new Paneraverse. It is also stated in the filing that Panera could provide an “online virtual restaurant wherein users can earn reward points and virtual currency which may be used to purchase food and beverages.” This implies that eating virtual food in metaverse will earn real rewards for Panera members.