The drugstore and health services company filed for a trademark to sell virtual goods, NFTs and provide health care services, joining major retailers like Walmart and Nike.
In CVS Health’s filing with the U.S. patent Trade Office, the company stated it is looking to trademark its logo, establish an online store and create downloadable virtual goods such as prescription drugs, health, wellness, beauty and personal care products.
The filing also contained details about CVS seeking to bring its health services it provides in its in-store clinics, its telehealth platform, non-emergency medical treatment services and wellness programs to the virtual platform.
The company is the first to file for a virtual healthcare clinic in the metaverse, according to trademark attorney Josh Gerben.
Trademark attorney Josh Gerben told that there has been a wave of corporate metaverse filings since Facebook changed its name to Meta last year.
“All these Fortune 500 companies are making trademark filing with the idea of ‘How are we going to play on this platform?’” said Gerben, founding partner of Gerben Perrott law firm. But, he added, “I don’t think I’ve seen anything in the last couple of months that’s been like this CVS filing as a virtual healthcare clinic.”
CVS also seeks to bring the health services it provides in its in-store clinics and its telehealth platform to the virtual setting. In the filing, the company points to providing nutrition and wellness coaching, “namely, non-emergency medical treatments services, wellness programs, advisory services related to nutrition, providing health lifestyle and nutrition services… and counseling.”
The application explicitly mentions blockchain and smart contracts and covers virtual goods, entertainment, digital artwork, news and information.
Shortly before the new year one of CVS’s biggest competitors, Walmart, registered twenty trademarks around blockchain, non-fungible tokens, cryptocurrency and the metaverse.
While this might be interpreted as CVS making specific plans, it can also be a defensive move.
CVS is already involved with blockchain outside of the metaverse and NFTs. It is a participant in trials with the Decentralized Identity (DID) Alliance. And its Aetna health insurance division joined two enterprise blockchain health consortiums. The Synaptic Health Alliance aims to synchronize care provider directories. And IBM created another consortium focused on blockchain for claims, payment processing, and health data exchanges.