By Rocky Berndsen

Blockchain is an emerging technology that has taken the world by storm.  In October 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published a seminal paper, titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System“, and the age of blockchain was born.  Since then, entrepreneurs and large corporations have explored implementation of blockchain technology in financial transactions, smart contracts, automotive, retail, healthcare, energy, utilities, travel, supply chain, and gaming, among other industries.

Based on our analysis of active patents & pending applications, blockchain-related filings have increased significantly around the world in recent years.  For instance, there were only 126 filings in 2014, but by 2017 there were over 3,700 applications filed in the blockchain space.  In 2018, a year in which not all the filings have yet become public, there have already been over 8,200 filings.  The growth curve in blockchain filings is truly exponential.  It will be interesting to see over the coming years whether this trend continues.

TRY OUR INTERACTIVE DASHBOARD

Page 1 highlights the top players in the blockchain space, page 2 highlights the filing trends, and page 3 highlights the patent issuance trends.  You can click on elements (e.g., country code, company name, type filter, filing date filter) of the dashboard to filter the data.

The geographic distribution of filings is also very interesting.  To date, over 10,000 blockchain filings occurred in China, more than half of all blockchain related filings worldwide.  According to a recent Forbes article, nearly 70% of crypto mining activity occurs in China, creating significant interest in protecting IP in the crypto currency space.  The top ten filers of chinese patent applications in the blockchain space are as follows:

Notably, the U.S. has the second most blockchain filings, with over 2,700 filings.  In the U.S., the top ten filers of patent applications in the blockchain space are as follows:

In comparison, the top ten U.S. patent owners in the blockchain space are as follows:

According to a recent report published by Accenture PLC, worldwide spending on blockchain solutions has a forecast annual growth rate (CAGR) of 76.0%, reaching $12.4 billion in 2022.  The blockchain space is still in the early stages of development, and it will be interesting to see how the technology evolves and who else enters the space.

To learn more about how Harrity Patent Analytics can help you find insights into the patent world, contact us via email HERE.