Authentication Protocols and Passkeys Patents: Leaders & Gaps 2026
Authentication Protocols and Passkeys Patents: Who Leads and Where the Claim Space Opens Up
Concentrated but not locked up. The top 5 assignees hold 27.3% of all 319 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 43.3% — a lead group, not a monopoly. Filings rose from 15 in 2017 to a peak of 50 in 2020, then eased to 29 by 2024 — a -28% move from 2021's 40 filings. Counts for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the recent-year dip should not be read as the field slowing.
- 1MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC30
- 2NOK NOK LABS INC18
- 3QUERALT INC15
- 4YUBICO13
- 5AMADEUS SAS11
See the full authentication protocols and passkeys 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 on authentication and passkey patents
Who holds the most patents on passkey and passwordless authentication technology?
The assignee ranking for this dataset covers 93 companies across 319 records, with the top-ranked assignee holding 30 records and a clear gap down to fifth place at 11. The top 5 assignees combined hold 27.3% of all records in scope, and the top 10 hold 43.3% — a genuine lead group rather than a single dominant owner. That leaves the majority of filings spread across a long tail of smaller filers, including identity-service specialists and single-patent entrants, so a freedom-to-operate check needs to look well beyond the leader alone.
Is patent filing in passwordless authentication still growing?
Filing peaked at 50 records in 2020 and the only fully comparable recent window, 2021 to 2024, shows a documented -28% decline to 29 records. That looks like a cooling trend, but publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset pulled today are still incomplete. Treat the post-2020 numbers as a settling from an initial land-grab phase rather than firm evidence the technology is losing investment.
What patent classes cover passkey and FIDO2-style authentication inventions?
The dominant classes are H04L (digital information transmission), covering 79.9% of the 319 records in scope, and G06F (electric digital data processing) at 50.8%. Wireless-network-specific claims (H04W) appear in 18.5% of records and commerce-related claims (G06Q) in 14.1%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100%, and each should be read against the full 319-record total, not against each other.
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 Authentication Protocols and Passkeys covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. 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.