Alibaba on Track to Be the Largest Blockchain Patent Holder by End of 2020: Study
Founder of Alibaba Group Jack Ma (Wang HE/Getty Images)
Alibaba on Track to Be the Largest Blockchain Patent Holder by End of 2020: Study
Alibaba is on track to supersede U.S. computer giant IBM by becoming the single-largest holder of blockchain-related patents, according to a new study.
- A report from intellectual property consultancy KISSPatent Thursday found the Chinese tech conglomerate was “definitely running the show,” having already published ten times more blockchain patents than IBM, its nearest rival.
- Should Alibaba continue at its current pace, the study predicted it would become the biggest patent holder in blockchain by the end of 2020.
- KISSPatent said this was part of a broader surge in the number of blockchain-related patents published. The first half of 2020 had more patents than the whole of 2019. In turn, 2019 had triple the number of blockchain patents than 2018.
- Another key point was that most of the patents were filed by traditional Fortune 500 companies, rather than companies that exist wholly within the blockchain space.
- That might be down to blockchain’s prevailing open-source culture, which is at odds with the practice of patent filing, KISSPatent said.
- Indeed, Jack Dorsey’s Square last week set up a non-profit group for blockchain companies to pool patents together and preserve the industry’s open-source spirit.
- Just in the past few months, Alibaba has patented a cross-chain system that it claims is better than Cosmos as well as a blockchain that protects music copyright.
