- Alibaba Group surpasses IBM as the holder of the most blockchain patent applications this year, according to a KISSPatent study
- The multinational company beat its own record, while the industry now has 3 times more patents than in 2018
- The list doesn’t include Chinese companies like Webank, Tencent and Reechain
Chinese tech giant, Alibaba Group owns the largest number of registered blockchain patents this year, shows the report from KISSPatent. The company filed a ten times higher number than the next company, IBM.
This field is in expansion, and for the first half of this year, significantly more crypto patents were registered than throughout 2019.
Despite some analysts’ opinions expressed in the past, DLT and crypto patents are intriguing more than ever in 2020. Back then some experts claimed that the Nchain and Bank of America will be holding all the possible patents in this area.
Alibaba Group broke its own record
The times changed as almost everything did in 2020. KISSPatent’s new report shows that Alibaba Group will be patent owner with the highest number in this industry. They are projected to overtake IBM by the end of this year.
The Chinese tech giant and IBM were close rivals in this race, but Alibaba succeeded to beat IBM by having ten times more patent applications registered so far in 2020. Main takeaway is that Alibaba broke its own record, while the overall industry has three times more registered patents than just two years ago, in 2018.
Who is taking the rest?
Alibaba Group is the champion, the second place by the number of applications holds IBM, followed by Mastercard, Nchain, and Walmart; according to KISSPatent.
Its study authors say that DLT specialized companies are not present on the list of the biggest patent owners. The reason behind this is that such companies don’t file for patent registrations often enough.
The interesting observation comes from KISSPatent’s researcher, Dr. Graeser. She pointed out that the lone DLT specialized company on this list is Nchain. Company in which works the notorious Craig Wright, who claims to be Bitcoin creator. Nchain’s data comes from the company’s own press releases, which can be called in doubt per KISSPatent.
The list isn’t complete
KISSPatent’s research team admits that this list isn’t complete because it doesn’t include companies like Webank or Tencent. The confirmation of this came from a China Daily report stating that some Chinese companies are not present on the list, pointing to the two mentioned above and Reechain as well.
KISSPatent estimation is that Alibaba Group has over 15 hundred patents, IBM has 240 patents. China Daily points out that Tencent, Webank, and Reechain should be ahead of IBM on this list.
