The race for blockchain patents
\nis swarmed with hurdles. They protect vital pieces of intellectual property.
\nThe race to patent blockchain innovations, the newest kid on the patent gold
\nrush block has seen a lot of activity in the last few years. Blockchain can be
\nutilized anywhere from the stock exchange, health care industry to security.<\/p>\n
Blockchain inventions present
\nhuge opportunities for firms and institutions to join the patent race. These
\ninclude secure trading systems that cover financial related services, fast
\ntechnologies and software. <\/p>\n
Blockchain patenting strategies therefore
\nare a key area for major institutions in the crypto sphere. Great emphasis in
\nblockchain related applications lies in how targeted inventions will solve
\ntechnical problems in a new way.<\/p>\n
Another great opportunity presented by blockchain patents is on industrial economic scale. Companies targeting such a lucrative sector would reap huge profits over the years. According to Herman Gref, the CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board at Sberbank, industrial scale blockchain adoption is imminent. Blockchain has shield away from its previous \u201chype\u201d and now moved into concrete real use adoption.<\/p>\n
Many crypto enthusiasts believe
\nthat major multinationals need to join the bandwagon to accelerate large scale
\ncrypto adoption. Well, that is currently happening. An analysis by Thomson
\nReuters showed that China filed 225 blockchain patents in 2017. The U.S
\nfiled 91 patents while Australia came third with 13 patents.<\/p>\n
The Bank of America (BofA) has filed over 50 blockchain patents. Who saw that coming, right? This makes the bank the largest informal blockchain patent owner. BofA has been overtly critical of cryptocurrencies in the past. Catherine Bessant, the Chief Operations and Technology Officer at BofA said; \u201cWe\u2019ve got <\/em>under 50 patents<\/em> in the blockchain\/distributed ledger space, we want to be ahead of it, we want to be prepared.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Major global players like Sony, Google, MasterCard, IBM, Alibaba, Facebook, NASDAQ, and Microsoft have also secured various blockchain patents. According to a report by Bloomberg, blockchain patenting is expected to grow exponentially.<\/p>\n Alibaba<\/strong> took up 10% of all the 406 blockchain patents applied for in 2017. Alibaba is set to be \u201cthe most patented company in the world of blockchain technology, \u201dJing Xiandong CEO of Ant Financial, Alibaba`s financial arm says. Alibaba is utilizing blockchain technology to fight against food fraud, track shipments across borders and secure medical data.<\/p>\n IBM<\/strong> has over 89 blockchain patents but has filed over 9,043 as per their calculations. Its most exciting patent is connected with preserving the privacy of The only stock exchange on the list of blockchain patent owners, NASDAQ<\/strong> is also the world’s second largest stock exchange. It has a $6.8 trillion market cap, and in 2016 it filed for a blockchain based exchange system patent. This novel platform will combine large registries and eliminate data inconsistencies.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Qualcomm<\/strong> is known for filing patents to license them out later to other entities for royalty fees. This characteristic has earned the company a “patent troll” tag. The company is actually getting sued by Apple for demanding a fraction of all sales from iPhone! Notwithstanding the law suite, Qualcomm is a prolific patent owner with over 46,000 approved patents and over 100,000 others in applications. <\/p>\n Coinbase<\/strong> is well known in the crypto sphere for its digital currency exchange platform. It has the highest number of patents among digital currency exchange market players. On the other hand, MasterCard<\/strong> has over 80 blockchain patents in the field of payment transactions. It has a patent application that encodes payment credit cards’ images to the blockchain. \u00a0MasterCard has another unique license that enables travelers to upload their itineraries to a blockchain, to allow vendors to bid for services.<\/p>\n