As we noted in our post last year on the state of blockchain patent litigation, thousands of blockchain-related patent applications are being filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Continuing our analysis of the evolving landscape, we now look at who is filing these patent applications. A search for the top applicants for U.S. patents from the start of 2021 to today submitting applications on either “blockchain” or “distributed ledger” technology yielded an interesting view of the companies that were aggressively seeking patent protection on blockchain technologies.
The top filing companies in the last year operate in a variety of industries and geographic locations, most notably the financial and technology sectors. Recently, IBM has taken the lead as the single entity filing the most blockchain-related patent applications in the last year.
Applicant[1] | No. of Applications | Jurisdiction |
1. IBM | 345 | U.S. |
2. Beijing Baidu Netcom Sci & Tech Co. Ltd. | 266 | China |
3. Advanced New Technologies Co. Ltd. | 259 | Cayman Islands |
4. Alipay (Hangzhou) Inf. Tech. Co. Ltd. | 168 | China |
5. Pure Storage, Inc. | 161 | U.S. |
6. Toyota Motor North America, Inc. | 123 | U.S. subsidiary |
7. Nchain Holdings Ltd. | 97 | Switzerland |
8. Bank of America | 78 | U.S. |
9. Capital One Services LLC | 70 | U.S. |
10. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. | 68 | U.S. |
However, this lead is a bit deceiving because, of the top individual entities filing applications in this period, Advanced New Technologies and Alipay are both tied to China’s Ant Group Co., Ltd., which itself is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Limited. Counting these together establishes the Alibaba Group as being far and away the most active filer.
When instead looking at the top owners for issued patents, four companies in the top 10 also tie back to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. In fact, the top three companies, all with ties to Alibaba, hold more patents than the next largest holder, IBM, by a significant margin. In issued patents, IBM comes in fourth, with several other U.S. financial and technologies companies rounding out the top 10.
Owner[2] | No. of Patents | Jurisdiction |
1. Advanced New Technologies Co. Ltd. | 856 | Cayman Islands |
2. Alibaba Group Holding Limited | 776 | China |
3. Advantageous New Technologies Co., Ltd. | 771 | Cayman Islands |
4. IBM | 399 | U.S. |
5. Bank of America Corporation | 96 | U.S. |
6. Pure Storage, Inc. | 90 | U.S. |
7. Alipay (Hangzhou) Information Technology Co., Ltd. | 90 | China |
8. Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC | 76 | U.S. |
9. Wells Fargo Bank N.A. | 71 | U.S. |
10. Strong Force Lot Portfolio 2016 LLC | 66 | U.S. |
We can ascertain from this data that some in the financial and technology sectors are investing large amounts to obtain patents on blockchain-related technologies. Of these, the Alibaba Group and its related entities appear to be the most prolific in the space. This comes with the continued groundswell of investment in blockchain technology to tackle a host of different problems. While U.S. based companies have made large investments in filing for patents, there has been more applications coming from international entities, with the most originating from Chinese companies. The substantial investment in U.S. blockchain patents by Alibaba and other Chinese companies could mean an intent to move more aggressively into blockchain businesses in the U.S., as U.S. patents are only enforceable within the United States.
[1] Information from Lens.org can be found here.
[2] Information Lens.org can be found here.
