In this week’s newsletter, read about how trademark applications for nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse have grown in the United States. Check out how NFT marketplace OpenSea has launched a tool that can enforce NFT royalties on-chain and how the Chinese city of Wuhan backpedaled on its NFT plans while still pursuing the growth of metaverse economies.
In other news, find out how NFTs can turn passive fans into active community members. And don’t forget this week’s Nifty News featuring South Korea testing purchasing NFTs with their central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Trademarks filed for NFTs, metaverse and cryptocurrencies soar to new levels in 2022
Data shared by trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis shows that filings for NFT and metaverse-related trademarks in the U.S. have grown in 2022.
For NFTs, the data shows that at the end of October 2022, 6,855 trademark applications were filed. This shows significant growth from 2021. Last year, only 2,142 NFT-related trademark filings were recorded. On the other hand, filings for metaverse trademarks have also increased, with 4997 trademark applications filed by the end of October. This shows a significant increase in filings, as the total number of applications for metaverse in 2021 was 1,890.
OpenSea launches on-chain tool to enforce NFT royalties
NFT marketplace OpenSea has launched a tool that enforces NFT royalties, which apply to new NFT collections. Devin Finzer, the CEO of OpenSea, noted that the new tool will let creators have on-chain enforcement of royalties. The tool is a code snippet that lets creators enforce royalties on new and future smart contracts for NFT collections.
In addition, the tool also allows creators to restrict the sales of their NFT collections to marketplaces that support and enforce creator fees. However, while OpenSea said that it will support collections with an on-chain enforcement tool, it wouldn’t force new collections that don’t opt-in.
Wuhan omits NFTs from metaverse plan amid regulatory uncertainty in China
While the Chinese government has been supportive of metaverse efforts, its stance on NFTs has started to become blurry. With the regulatory uncertainty surrounding Web3 within the country, the city of Wuhan has reportedly put aside its NFT plans.
While NFTs were originally included in the city’s metaverse economy development plan, a new version of the plan has deleted a line about NFTs. Despite this, the city still aims to nurture more than 200 metaverse companies and build at least two metaverses by 2025.
NFTs are the key to turning passive fandom into an active community
In a Cointelegraph interview, Ogden and Miana Lauren, team members of the inBetweeners NFT project, shared how NFTs can turn passive fandoms into more active communities and transform user participation.
The project’s team members shared how Miana started off as a fan of the project and eventually joined the team because of the engagement opportunities provided by the NFTs. She now works as a community manager for the team and believes that NFTs have the power to be many people’s gateway to using more Web3 technologies.
Nifty News: Royalty-enforcing NFTs a ‘new asset class,’ South Korea buys NFTs with CBDC and more
In Solana’s Breakpoint 2022 conference, Jack Lu, the CEO of NFT marketplace Magic Eden, highlighted that NFTs that enforce royalties have the potential to become a new asset class. Meanwhile, South Korea’s central bank has started testing purchasing NFTs with its CBDC.
Thanks for reading this digest of the week’s most notable developments in the NFT space. Come again next Wednesday for more reports and insights into this actively evolving space.