Alibaba Has Filed for over 10% of the World’s Blockchain Patents

China’s ongoing drive to dominate the emerging global blockchain technology sector has been underlined by news that Alibaba Group Holding alone filed more than 10 percent of all blockchain patents worldwide in 2017. Research by Thomson Reuters shows that 56 percent of all 406 blockchain patents issued around the world in 2017 came from China, with the United States a distant second with 22 percent. Combined with the rapid rise in blockchain patent filings from 134 in 2016 to 406 in 2017, the data tells a story of an ongoing intellectual property rights race that China is currently winning convincingly.

The Nikkei Asian Review reports that of the 406 blockchain patents issued in 2017, Alibaba alone filed 43, with other Chinese tech giants like Tencent and Baidu also dominating the list of blockchain patent owners. The US still leads China in terms of overall number of blockchain patents filed, but China is fast closing the gap, and on an annual level China is actually in the lead. China has a well-documented atmosphere of regulatory hostility to cryptocurrencies and ICOs, having instituted a total ban on all crypto trading and ICO fundraising earlier this year. Following the ban, auxiliary bans and online purges have become commonplace in an effort to enforce restrictions.

Despite this, Chinese authorities remains very receptive to the technology behind cryptocurrencies, with Chinese President Xi Jinping describing blockchain technology as one of a new generation of technologies that is “substantially reshaping the global economic structure.”