Despite the country’s ban on cryptocurrencies, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) stated on Tuesday in a news conference that the nation accounted for more than 84 percent of the world’s blockchain patent applications.
The MIIT did not, however, cite the source of its information on worldwide blockchain patent applications.
According to Wang Jianwei, deputy head of MIIT’s IT Development Department, blockchain is currently quickly integrating with business and politics.
Despite the fact that China has outlawed cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology is used by businesses and the government. According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a university supported by MIIT, as of March this year, China has more than 1,300 blockchain enterprises.
According to a report by the patent think tank PatSnap in February, China ranked first globally in the number of blockchain patent filings in 2021 with about 33,000 applications, accounting for 63.2% of the global application. The U.S. and South Korea were second and third, respectively.
However, PatSnap noted that just 10.5% of the patents are cited more than 11 times, compared to the U.S. at 21.5%, suggesting that the quality of blockchain patents in China may be low. Additionally, only 0.1% of blockchain patents in China have more than 100 citations, as opposed to 1.3% in the US.
The cost of submitting a patent in China is quite low, but the benefits of having one—or even just submitting one—can significantly raise a company’s prestige.
And even if many of the submitted applications don’t seem very cutting-edge or novel, businesses nevertheless want to submit them to give the impression that they are.
