China Files “Unprecedented” Volume of Cybersecurity Patents

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A new report points to a surge in the volume of cybersecurity patents filed by China following strategic prioritisation of the sector by the state.

According to the Cybersecurity Patenting Trends report from Minesoft and Patinformatics the number of priority filings in relation to cybersecurity emerged from China reached the “unprecedented level” of nearly 7,000 in 2017.

The report authors say that China has made cybersecurity a “national priority” for development, and that patent applications are arriving “at an accelerated rate compared to other jurisdictions.”

China’s established tech giants such as Alibaba, Huawei and Tencent figure prominently amongst the patent applicants.

The report further points out that many companies are filing for patents in the United States as well as China, which is a “clear signal of the importance these companies place on these innovations and their likely quality.”

A recent report from Cybersecurity Ventures indicates that the cybersecurity market has expanded approximately 35-fold in the past 13 years to reach over $120 billion by 2017.

IBM currently holds the largest portfolio of cybersecurity patents followed by Microsoft.