Nike’s New Filing for ‘Cryptokicks’ Trademark Sparks Speculation of Its Crypto Market Entry

According to the latest USPTO filing, America’s multinational corporation Nike Inc. has recently filed for a new trademark for the work ‘Cryptokicks’. From the name itself we can make out that this could possibly be the beginning of a new innings for Nike in the crypto market.

The trademark application describes it to represent itself as a crypto online marketplace services, or a cryptocurrency software and hardware wallet. Thus ‘Cryptokicks’ could possibly be a digital currency used by the members of an online community.

Although Nike refused to make any official comment on this, its trademark application comes as the company plans to expand its digital business footprint. Looking to the shift in the online business industry, Nike is putting massive effort to improve its mobile sales and e-commerce presence.

In a bid to further improve its customer services, Nike could possibly use the blockchain technology to enhance its supply chain while integrating its native cryptocurrency to the platform.

Trademark attorney Josh Gerben says that looking into the history, Nike has always stayed serious of getting its trademark filings to business. It means that going further, the company could possibly establish ‘Cryptokicks’ as a line of business.

"There has to be somewhat of a business idea behind it," he said. "If you submit things just for the purpose of submitting things, it will tie up the trademark system unnecessarily. Nike does not have a history of filings that are speculative,” said Gerben.

Last month in March 2019, Nike filed another trademark for the word ‘footware’ a combination of footwear and software. The filing describes ‘footware’ trademark as "Computer hardware modules for receiving, processing, and transmitting data in Internet of things electronic devices; electronic devices and computer software that allow users to remotely interact with other smart devices for monitoring and controlling automated systems”.

Nike could possibly face some resistance with the new ‘Cryptokicks’ trademark application. Last year, Arthur Camara, founder of the famous Ethereum-based Dapp CryptoKitties talked about having a marketplace for tokenized shoes and sneakers under the name Cryptokicks.

Thus, it is very much possible that Nike could face opposition to the Cryptokicks trademark application going further.