Why Blockchain Applications Are Patent-Eligible
As a patent practitioner, one of the questions I often get asked
is whether distributed ledger technology (DLT), such as
blockchain, is patentable. I naturally respond in the affirmative
(with some qualifiers of course), and inevitably there is a deluge
of follow-up questions and statements such as: "That can't
be! Blockchain is just software, and isn't it nearly impossible
to get patents for software these days? or "This technology
has been around for almost 10 years, there is nothing new to patent
here," and so forth.
Exemplary patents related to blockchain
technology
According to a recent analysis by Thomson Reuters, 225 out of the 406
blockchain-related patents (55.4%) filed in 2017 were filed by
applicants based China, 91 (22.4%) blockchain-related patents
were filed by U.S. applicants, and the North American corporation
with the most blockchain-related patents to date (50) is Bank of
America Corp. Other
