Blockchain-patents: China and USA to dominate, Europe cut off

the The Australian patent office, IP Australia has created an Overview of the global patent landscape in the Blockchain sector. As before, China clearly leads in the number of patent applications. Most of the patents were submitted for payment and transaction systems. What the Figures also show: In Europe, there is still pent-up demand.

By Christopher clover
13. December 2018ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInxingemail

That the Blockchain technology is a growth market, is also reflected in the number of registered patents. The Australian Patent office, IP Australia has produced a study on the Blockchain-related patents. Accordingly, the company filed worldwide between 1999 and 2018, more than 3000 patents.

The lion's share of patent applications is on the account of China. With over 1,500 patents filed, more than half of all applications come from the middle Kingdom. Thereafter, the United States with approximately 950 applications, of Europe, with 131 patents filed in behind South Korea (220), and Japan.

In the year 2013 the number of patent applications 49. Then, a sudden increase of 162 applications followed in 2015. The highlight of the year is in 2016, with about 1100 patents. Most of the Blockchain-patents accounted for, however, is the patent family of the payment and transaction systems, followed by financial services, business administration and Shopping & E-Commerce.

The big four

the four companies with the most patent activity, the dominance of the United States, China, and South Korea. Here South Korea leads the company Coinplug with 75 logged Blockchain patents, of which 69 have already been approved. Place two IBM follows with 61 patents (12 Commitments), the E-Commerce-travel, Alibaba Group (57 applications, so far, zero Commitments), and Bank of America (49 pending patent decisions).

While Coinplug and IBM, the list of successful patent citation applications, can be found here with accenture, from Ireland, a European company. Accenture keeps up with so far, 7 of the Blockchain patents just as much as Microsoft Azure. Six of the ten most engaged companies are not yet ten years old – a clear indicator of the youth of the industry.

Germany also has a steadily growing number of Blockchain and crypto Start-ups. BTC-ECHO has taken the Status Quo of the German crypto-landscape in a study, which you can find here.