Alibaba tops blockchain patents list
Alibaba has nabbed the top spot, ahead of tech giant IBM, on a new iPR Daily list that ranks global organisations by the number of blockchain-related patents they’ve filed.
The media outlet used data as of 10th August from across China, the EU, America, Japan and South Korea, and also consulted the International Patent System from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Alibaba filed 90 blockchain-related patent applications and IBM was close behind with 89. In third place is Mastercard (80) followed by Bank of America (53). Next up is People's Bank of China, which has filed a total of 44 patent applications around its central bank digital currency project.
Last year, Alibaba discussed its blockchain plans in a paper entitled ‘Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Security, Internet of Things and Cloud Computing’ (BASIC). It is currently involved in projects in such sectors as food, healthcare and supply chain. And it recently announced that AlipayHK, a digital wallet JV between Ant Financial, of which Alibaba owns 33%, and CK Hutchison Holdings, had teamed with payment service platform GCash for the launch of a cross-border remittance service based on blockchain technology.
