Recognizing the opportunity, Viacom International Inc., the owner of the franchise, has filed for two trademarks for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-related crypto-collectibles, NFTs and NFT-backed media, as well as NFT and crypto-collectible transfer software. Both filings with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on September 6 were revealed by licensed trademark attorney Michael Kondoudis in a tweet on September 12.  The first of the two trademarks will allow the fans of anthropomorphic crime-fighting turtle brothers Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael to download multimedia files containing TMNT artwork, as well as virtual goods like crypto-collectibles and NFTs. As for the second application, it pertains to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) which aims to allow the creation of software to transfer crypto-collectibles and application tokens, and a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) which would facilitate software for accessing crypto-collectibles and app tokens. In addition, the second trademark application also anticipates the provision of online non-downloadable computer software for enabling the transfer of crypto-collectibles and NFTs.

The franchise is just one of the latest in the long list of celebrities, brands, sports teams, and organizations filing for Web3-related trademarks. One of the other major newcomers is the automaker Ford which made its big move into the metaverse by filing as many as 19 Web3-related trademarks. Meanwhile, the number of crypto trademark filings in the United States alone surpassed 3,600 between January 1 and August 31, 2022, beating the entire year of 2021 during which 3,516 crypto trademark applications were filed, as Finbold reported.