Application Security Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
Application Security Patents: Who Holds the Claims and Where Filing Is Still Open
Filings climbed 47% from 2021 to 2024 (141 to 207 records), with 2024 the peak year so far — momentum that predates the most recent, still-incomplete filing years. Records climbed from 156 in 2017 to a peak of 207 in 2024, up 47% over the 2021-2024 window. The 2025-2026 dip reflects publication lag, not a real contraction in filing.
- 1NXP BV3.3%
- 2VOLVO CAR CORP2.9%
- 3MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC2.5%
- 4AS0001 INC2.4%
- 5DISPERSIVE HLDG INC2.3%
See the full application security patent landscape analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about application security patents
Who holds the most application security patents?
The dataset’s leading assignee holds 106 records, noticeably ahead of the fifth-place holder at 74 and the tenth-place holder at 55. That said, the top 5 assignees combined account for only 13.5% of all 3,176 records in scope, and the top 10 for 23.8%, so no single company controls the field. The remainder is spread across a long tail of applicants each holding a handful of records, which means competitive monitoring needs to cover well beyond the obvious leaders.
Is application security patent filing growing or slowing down?
Filing grew 47% from 141 records in 2021 to 207 in 2024, which is the peak year in the dataset. The apparent decline in 2025 and 2026 is not a real slowdown; publication typically lags the actual filing date by around 18 months, so the most recent one to two years are always undercounted at the point of any data pull. Treat 2024 as the most recent year that reflects true filing volume.
Which patent classes matter most for application security filings?
H04L (digital information transmission) and G06F (electric digital data processing) dominate, covering 57.3% and 52.2% of all 3,176 records respectively — note these overlap since a single record can carry both. H04W (wireless communication networks) and G06Q (business and commerce data processing) follow at 17.1% and 13.5%. Niche verticals like healthcare informatics (G16H) and AI-based computing (G06N) each sit under 4%, marking them as comparatively open ground rather than saturated claim space.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Application Security Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.