Chinese companies are angling to overtake the United States in blockchain adoption.
Recent figures
published by Chinese media outlets show that companies in China have
filed for over half of all global blockchain patents.
According
to a report titled “2020 Blockchain Industry Development”, Chinese
companies have applied for 4,435 blockchain patents following Chinese
president Xi Jinping’s endorsement of the industry. The study was
jointly compiled by Tsinghua University, Peking University, and China
Institute of Communications.
During a committee session in October 2019, President Xi called for the country to accelerate its adoption of blockchain technologies as a core for innovation.
According to the study, tech giant Alibaba Group had applied
for the highest number of blockchain patents in 2020 at a whopping 200
patents. That is 10x more than the number filed by IBM during the same
period.
Major multinational companies have also shown
immense interest in filing blockchain patents in China. Cointelegraph
reported a study that suggested 35 multinationals including Microsoft,
Walmart, Mastercard, Sony, and Intel had applied for a total of 212 blockchain patents as of March 2020.
Back
in 2018, the World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO,
reported that the most patent filings for Blockchain technology came from China.
Data
collected by Thomson Reuters from the international patent organization
likewise showed that over half of the 406 patents filed in 2017 came
from China. The country took the top spot with 225 Blockchain patents,
followed by the US with 91, and Australia with 13.
