Metaverse McDonald’s will deliver to your real door

Virtual users may soon be able to order a Big Mac and chips virtually and have their food delivered in person.

McDonald’s as become one of the first fast-food chains attempting to pair real life transactions with the metaverse. Picture: NCA NewsWire / James Gourley

Metaverse users may soon be able to order a Big Mac and chips virtually and have their food delivered in person after McDonalds applied for a trademark to operate a virtual restaurant.

The US fast-food giant has become one of the first fast-food chains to attempt to pair real-life transactions with those that occur in the metaverse.

McDonald’s has applied for 10 trademarks from the US Patent and Trademark Office including the use of non-fungible tokens, to operate “online retail services featuring virtual goods”, to sell “virtual food and beverage products” and to host virtual concerts.

The main application, filed February 4, sought permission for the business in “operating a virtual restaurant featuring actual and virtual goods, operating a virtual restaurant online featuring home delivery”.

Self-serve kisoks at a McDonalds restaurant in St Leonards, Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / James Gourley

If approved, the trademarks would protect McDonald’s right to operate the restaurant in the metaverse and reality.

The move was brought to public attention overnight after US Trademark attorney Josh Gerben shared the applications online.

“You are hanging out in the metaverse and get hungry. You don’t have to put down your headset. You walk into a McDonald’s and place an order. It arrives at your door a little while later,” he wrote.

McDonald's is headed to the metaverse.

The company has filed 10 (TEN!) trademark applications indicating it plans to offer "a virtual restaurant featuring actual and virtual goods" and "operating a virtual restaurant featuring home delivery."#Mcdonalds#Metaversepic.twitter.com/J9pK7EK9nl

— Josh Gerben (@JoshGerben) February 9, 2022

Speaking to Forbes magazine, Mr Gerben said he believed McDonald’s had set a precedent for major corporations.

“I think you’re going to see every brand that you can think of make these filings within the next 12 months,” he said. “I don’t think anyone wants to be the next Blockbuster and just completely ignore a new technology that’s coming.”

McDonalds follows several major US corporations into the metaverse including Nike and Disney.

Australian company Creso Pharma – the ASX-listed cannabis company at the centre of a regulatory probe – is also entering the metaverse, buying a “strategically located” plot of digital land next to rapper Snoop Dogg.