Why patents will be easier to enforce against permissioned blockchains

This week two sets of data were published showing the growth in blockchain patent registration. Blockchain may prove to be a comparatively tricky area to both register and enforce patents. Enforcement could be harder against public blockchains.

The growth

According to Thomson Reuters, the number of cryptocurrency patents filed worldwide went from 521 in 2016 to 602 last year. For blockchain, the figures were 134 and 406 respectively. Last year 56% of Blockchain applications came from China and 22% from the United States.

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