Trademark applications hint at Fujitsu crypto trading service and Sony PlayStation NFT integration

Coinhead Rob Badman
Sony PlayStation NFTs

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Mega Japanese multinational tech companies Fujitsu and Sony have both filed separate trademark applications that show their potential moves to integrate web3/blockchain tech and digital assets.

If you needed some cheery crypto-adoption news amid all the uncertainty regarding crypto crackdowns in the US and bank-implosion drama and recession angst, then there’s actually quite a bit around just lately.

And that includes Amazon potentially embracing NFTs and Nasdaq advancing its plans to offer a crypto-asset custody service, as we flagged in our morning roundup today.

 

Fujitsu plans crypto trading service

Here’s a big one, then. Fujitsu has filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), that shows it has interest in offering a crypto brokerage service for trading digital assets.

The development was first shared by Mike Kondoudis, a USPTO licensed trademark attorney, on Twitter (see below) about five days ago but the news is only just starting to spread across wider media this week.

It isn’t actually the first time Fujitsu has shown interest in the crypto and blockchain space. In February, per the Fintech Times, the tech giant launched a web3 startups acceleration platform designed to support developers and projects in the space globally.

And, as Blockworks reports, Fujitsu is one of a few Japanese companies (also including Mitsubishi) that recently announced a plan to build a metaverse project called “Ryugukoku”.

That will apparently include a virtual, and interoperable economic zone with the aim of gamifying Japan’s business ecosystem.

 

Sony makes a PlayStation NFT patent push

The mega-bucks traditional gaming world has had a mixed to negative reaction to the idea of web3/blockchain and NFT integration in video games.

Some major trad, web2 developers have very much embraced the idea of digital asset ownership and have made the leap into new web3 projects, while many others, and many gamers, have eschewed.

Well-known game publishers including Ubisoft and Square Enix have been met with no small amount of pushback on their entries into the space with critics slamming them for embracing what many outside the cryptosphere view as a scammy industry full of exploitation and manipulation.

As usual, there are two sides to the story with the truth perhaps lying somewhere in the middle.

In any case, adoption of web3 in gaming seems to be pushing ahead, because we now have some major Sony news. In fact, this could be the biggest potential leap from the mainstream gaming world into web3 yet.

It’s just come to light that the firm behind the stupendously popular and successful PlayStation console and brand, Sony Interactive Entertainment, recently submitted a patent application for a framework that aims to integrate NFTs into its gaming ecosystem.

The indication is that NFTs could be used as gaming skins and other digital assets – such as weapons, avatars and “skills” – with transferability and potential for interoperability between gaming platforms.

Additionally, the application proposed that NFT assets could be “connected over a network” from PlayStation to consoles from other makers, as well as via VR and AR headsets, smart TVs, and mobile devices.

“The standardized format may be readable to insert the digital asset in different computer simulations that may include different video games of different titles,” reads the application. “Additionally, or alternatively, […] readable via different video game platforms such as, for example, PlayStation and Xbox.”

If this develops and solidifies into something resembling a more official strategy for the firm then it’s huge news for the NFT gaming world. As it is, it’s already an exciting development.

The Sony filing, however, claims that current gaming console systems are “technologically inadequate for the owner to use the asset across different games and/or platforms.”

Perhaps future iterations of the PlayStation console will have in-built blockchain tech integration.

 

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