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The House Financial Services Committee in the United States is pressing Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, to disclose its intentions regarding five cryptocurrency-related trademark applications filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2022.
Maxine Waters, the committee’s ranking member, penned a letter on Jan. 22 to Meta’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and operating chief Javier Olivan. In the letter, Waters expressed concern about the five trademark applications filed on March 18, 2022, suggesting that they indicate Meta’s ongoing interest in expanding its involvement in the digital assets ecosystem.
Waters pointed out that despite Meta informing the Democratic Financial Services Committee staff on Oct. 12, 2023, that there was no ongoing work on digital assets at Meta, the trademark applications indicated otherwise. Meta had previously abandoned its plans for the Diem stablecoin (formerly Libra) in mid-2019 due to pressure from lawmakers and subsequently sold Diem for $200 million in January 2022.
The trademark filings cover various services related to crypto and “blockchain assets,” including trading, exchange, payments, transfers, wallets, and associated hardware and software infrastructure.
Meta has received Notices of Allowance (NOA) for each filing, indicating that the applications meet registration requirements. Meta must respond within six months by either stating its intention to use the trademark or requesting a six-month extension. The earliest response deadline is Feb. 15, 2023, with the latest NOA issued on Jan. 16, requiring a response by July 16.
Waters posed several questions to Meta, seeking clarity on how it plans to respond to the NOAs, whether it intends to pursue Web3, crypto, or digital wallet projects, and if it has plans to launch a crypto payments platform. Additionally, Waters inquired about Meta’s research into stablecoins, potential partnerships with stablecoin projects, its interest in adopting distributed ledger technology (DLT), and how its technology could facilitate crypto-related functions in its metaverse.
As of now, Meta has not provided an immediate response to the inquiry.
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