China has remained a hotspot for blockchain patents and development. The National Intellectual Property Administration of China has granted 2,191 blockchain patents from 2017 to 2019.

Significant multinational companies have also displayed a tremendous interest in recording blockchain patents in China. The most advanced Global Times report recommends that 35 multinationals, including Microsoft, Mastercard, Sony, Walmart, and Intel, had appealed for a total of 212 blockchain patents by the end of March 2020.

Of all the foreign companies with blockchain patents in China, Mastercard exceeds the list with 46 such patents to its name. While there is no news about the company beginning any business, especially in China, these patents could be regulated to help them with their global blockchain payments initiative, which they are growing along with the blockchain software firm R3.

Intel, Nokia, and Oracle are next on the line with 13, 12, and 9 blockchain patents respectively in China.

Although these companies are registering for blockchain patents in China, all of them are, however, to commence a blockchain-related business within the nation. This is symbolic of the fact that these companies are registering various blockchain-patents for technological growth so that they may put them to work in the future.

Patent Filing Trend

While U.S. organizations are registering for various blockchain patents in China, Chinese companies do not appear to worry about filing patents in the United States. As previously reported, only 4.17% of 1.2 million Chinese patent applications in 2016 were registered overseas. Conversely, 43% of 521,802 patents listed by U.S.-based companies were filed abroad.

Earlier this year, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration streamlined its patent-filing process. Reviewing guidelines to patent applications for innovative technologies such as blockchain, AI (artificial intelligence), and big data revealed the country’s strategic prioritization of new tech and extending protections for intellectual property.