U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) voiced her concern about five trademark applications by Meta Platform related to digital assets services and blockchain technology.
Waters, the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee, is worried about what those applications could portend for Meta’s entry into cryptocurrency. She outlined her specific concerns in a letter sent to Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and CEO of Meta Platforms, and Javier Olivan, chief operating officer of Meta Platforms.
“With its initial filings on March 18, 2022, Meta’s application submissions as of January 22 appear to represent a continued intention to expand the company’s involvement in the digital assets ecosystem. According to the filings, “The Trademark Act requires that a trademark or service mark application must include a ‘specification of … the goods [or services]’ in connection with which the mark is being used or will be used.”1 The following applications were submitted to the USPTO, which include goods and services descriptions in connection with a range of digital assets activities,” Waters wrote.
Further, she sought answers to several questions on Meta’s plans related to digital assets.
Among the inquiries, she wanted to know whether Meta intends on pursuing any projects related to Web3, digital assets, or digital wallets and whether Meta intends to file Statements of Use or Extension Requests on the referenced trademark applications.
She also probed to what extent Meta is conducting research and development into pilot programs, future stablecoin projects, or partnerships with stablecoin issuers.
In addition, she asked whether Meta is exploring the potential adoption of distributed ledger technology (DLT) applications in its platform and if the company is planning to launch a payments platform supporting cryptocurrencies.
Finally, Waters asked how Meta’s technology is enabling cryptocurrency creation, mining, storage, transmission, or settlement of cryptocurrencies.
In 2019, after Facebook announced its plans to launch its own digital currency, Libra, and a digital wallet, known as Calibra. However, the company decided to shelve those plans shortly thereafter.