Container image and base layer security patents: who holds the claims that matter
77.9% concentration. The top 5 assignees account for 67 of the 86 records in scope, with a single leader filing 24 — the rest of the field is a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants. Filings rose from 2 in 2017 to a peak of 13 in 2022, then doubled from 6 in 2021 to 12 in 2024 — the clearest complete-year comparison available. 2025 and 2026 show lower counts, but publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so those two years are still filling in rather than signalling a slowdown.
- 1AMAZON TECH INC24
- 2WIZ INC16
- 3INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION12
- 4CISCO TECHNOLOGY INC10
- 5HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE DEV LP5
See the full container image and base layer security 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 container image security patents
Who holds the most patents in container image and base layer security?
One assignee leads with 24 of the 86 records in scope, and the top 5 assignees combined hold 67 records, or 77.9% of the field. The ranking drops off quickly after that: fifth place holds only 5 records and tenth place holds 2, so beyond the leading group most assignees have filed just once or twice. This concentration means a large share of the claim space around scanning, signature verification and registry access control is already occupied by a small number of players.
Is filing activity in this area growing or slowing down?
Filings grew from 6 in 2021 to 12 in 2024, a complete-year doubling that indicates sustained rather than one-off activity. The peak year so far is 2022 at 13 filings. Counts appear lower in 2025 and 2026, but patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so those most recent years are still incomplete and should not be read as a decline.
What technology areas do these patents actually cover?
By IPC classification, 93.0% of the 86 records carry G06F (electric digital data processing) and 32.6% carry H04L (digital information transmission), meaning almost all claim activity sits inside these two classes, often overlapping on the same record. Smaller classes like G06Q, G01N and G06N appear on 2.3% of records or fewer, marking business-process, materials-testing and AI-model angles as marginal rather than active fronts in this dataset.
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 Container Image and Base Layer Security 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.