CHINA has powered ahead of other countries with ‘bitcoin technology’ filing more than half of all blockchain patent applications for cryptocurrencies last year.
More than half the 406 blockchain related patents last year were filed by China as the market for securing software for digital assets boomed last year.
Patent applications for blockchain, which includes the distribution of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ripple, trebled in 2017 as digital currencies like bitcoin hit record highs. China filed 225 of the blockchain patents in 2017, which was a significant increase from the 59 in the previous year. The US trailed behind as the next highest with 91 in 2017, followed by Australia with 13, according to data collated by Thomson Reuters from the World Intellectual Property Organisation
Alex Batteson, editor at Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law told the Financial Times: “Companies are moving fast in order to protect their ideas in new areas of technological development — long before the technology actually goes to market. “Patents are also important for companies to attract all-important investment.
“Investors need to know that a business owns and can capitalise on the intellectual property and will not face interference from other parties claiming ownership.” Of the top nine firms filing for blockchain patents between 2012 and 2017, six were Chines with Beijing Technology Development at the helm. China has also been less dominant in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency applications where the top filers have been firms in the US and Europe including ICBM with 54, the Netherland’s Gemalto with 35, Intel with 34, Thomson Licensing with 31 and Amazon Technologies with 27. Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/937020/bitcoin-news-china-bitcoin-technology-cryptocurrency-price-boom
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