Royal Caribbean Cruises is apparently getting into the business of making face masks — a much sought-after commodity amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Richard Fain-led owner of 62 cruiseships has filed a patent application for a "Seaface" that will serve as a "sanitary mask for virus isolation purposes", according to a document filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
The application offers no rendering or description of the mask other than to show its name in an all-caps, black standard font.
"The mark consists of standard characters, without claim to any particular font style, size, or color," it read.
Royal Caribbean has not returned calls asking why the New York-listed company has applied for such a patent, filed on 15 April.
"The trademark application has been accepted by the Office (has met the minimum filing requirements) and has not yet been assigned to an examiner," the patent office wrote in a status document.
"New application will be assigned to an examining attorney approximately 3 months after filing date."
Royal Caribbean and its listed peers Carnival Corp and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings have attained billions of dollars in financing to offset major losses amid mass fleet lay-ups.
Face masks have become a hot commodity worldwide as authorities require people to wear them in an effort to prevent the very contagious virus from spreading further.
3M, Honeywell International and a subsidiary of Owens & Minor have received US government contracts to make 39 million N95 face masks for medical workers under the Defense Production Act.
Several major retailers have boosted their inventories of them to keep up with demand, including Amazon and Home Depot.
Meanwhile, people have resorted to making their own units amid short supply out of materials such as bandanas, bedsheets and scarves.
