NBA registers four NFT trademarks
The National Basketball Association is also likely to launch its own crypto assets soon
Image: NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is said to have filed for new non-fungible token (NFT) trademarks under the name 'The Association' earlier this month, according to reports. The trademark filings from Wednesday, April 6, were only made public on Monday, April 11.
The trademark filing includes various items such as game tickets, game programs, trading cards, collectibles, memorabilia, jerseys, and memes connected to the field of basketball authenticated by NFTs. The NBA also seems to have registered its second Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain, according to CoinDesk, and now owns the ‘nba.eth’ and ‘theassociationnft.eth’ domains.
Public blockchain records reveal that the ‘nba.eth’ domain was transferred in December 2021 from NFT collector ‘disco.eth’ to ENS core team member Brantly Millegan, to head of gaming and digital assets Adrienne O'Keeffe's wallet. ‘theassociationnft.eth’ was then transferred from a pseudonymous wallet to the same address in March.
Millegan, in an interview with CoinDesk, had previously revealed the project's philosophy of encouraging ‘.eth’ squatters to give up or sell domains associated with well-known firms for free or at a reasonable cost. According to him, the ‘nba.eth’ transfer happened after ‘disco.eth’ heard about this.
At present, it's unclear what prompted the second ENS' transfer. In any event, the latest trademark registrations are claimed to be part of the league's ambitions to expand into the metaverse and Web 3.0, as well as a preparation for the league to create its own unique NFTs. The NBA is also slated to launch its crypto assets sooner than planned.
