A Comprehensive Guide on Blockchain Patent

• Nitish Srivastava
• October 05, 2020

Wondering what makes a patent a Blockchain Patent? You have landed on the right page. This article will provide you with a detailed guide on Blockchain patents, focusing on which country is at the lead and what are the major companies in this domain. So let’s get started. 

 

Table of Contents 

 

• What is Blockchain Patent?
• Alibaba takes the Lead in Blockchain Patent
• Other Major companies Dominating the Patent World
• Concluding Lines 

 

What is Blockchain Patent?

 

At present, Blockchain is the most emerging technology that is revolutionizing how industries and businesses operate. Blockchain is a growing list of records, known as blocks, which are linked through the cryptography mechanism. Instead of relying on a middleman/third party, it stores, corroborates, and transfers data over a distributed network, thus providing security and reliability in a cost-efficient manner.

 

In simpler words, Blockchain patents are exclusive rights that are issued by an official authority. Just like other patents, such patents grant its owner the right to exclude others from utilizing the patented technology. 

 

Patent applications related to Blockchain have been increasingly growing globally. A detailed study and examination of the patent environment for Blockchain shows that their patents are being filed worldwide for all sectors, including financial and non-financial domains. 

 

Alibaba takes the Lead in Blockchain Patent

 

China has always been a king with the highest Blockchain patent filings. According to a patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) in 2018, the bank planned to use a distributed ledger infrastructure to enhance the efficiency of certificate issuance and save users from constantly sending the same report to different entities. 

 

Blockchain patents are skyrocketing at present, and compared to the year 2019; there have been more Crypto / Blockchain patents issued. Although Chinese companies are listed as “top 10” Blockchain patent lists, they are not pure companies of the Blockchain.

 

Dr. D’vorah Graeser, founder and CEO of KISSPatent, believes that analyzing such patents is challenging, and therefore, he decided to introduce an innovative way to analyze the current state of the Blockchain patents. 

 

According to the report from intellectual property consultancy KISSPatent, Alibaba Group is the largest Blockchain patent holder, capturing ten times the number of patents held by IBM. Alibaba has registered more than 200 patents, while IBM filed a little over 100 patents. The above stats indicate that distributed ledger technology and cryptocurrency solution patents are becoming a thing again in 2020. A report notes that more patents related to Blockchain were published within the first semester of 2020 in comparison to 2019, a year when three times more Blockchain patents were published than in 2018.

 

Other Major companies Dominating Patent World

 

Other U.S. companies such as Bank of America and Mastercard have also filed multiple patent applications other than Alibaba and IBM, which reached the list of Blockchain-related patents, exceeding the total for the U.S. The study indicated that it is only big corporations that dominate the field of patents. In terms of Blockchain patents held, behind 

IBM and Mastercard are Nchain and Walmart. The new report by Kisspatent reveals that the U.S. has 2,112 patents, followed by 350 patents from the Cayman Islands and 118 Blockchain-related patents from Canada. Japan with 108, South Korea with 87, and China with 

77 patents in total are the remainder of the top six.

 

Dr. Graeser. mentioned that, “about half of all Blockchain-related patents we analyzed fell into the fintech category.”

 

The detailed analysis also illustrates that the Fintech domain dominates Blockchain patents. Applications that concentrate on cryptocurrency exchanges and financial transactions with Blockchain are the most dominating category. The other category that is most common is decentralized business solutions implemented over the Blockchain. 

Healthcare, conventional banking services, and general business services are other crucial categories related to Blockchain patents. 

 

Concluding Lines 

 

Blockchain is not just a technology; it even acts as an enabler for other futuristic technologies such as Machine Learning, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, etc. Presently, there are more than hundreds of million users of Blockchain applications, which also include several Blockchain patent apps. Well-established FinTech companies, including Walmart, Mastercard, and others, desire to file patents for Crypto/Blockchain technologies, and with each passing year, tech giants are filing such patents appear to be increasing. Undoubtedly, Blockchain is here to stay, and it will act as a powerful force in the disruption of technology very soon. 

 

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council.