Digital Identity Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Digital identity and credentials patents: mapping who owns the claim space
16.7% concentration at the top. The five most active filers account for 2,033 of 12,194 records in scope, so the field is not a level playing field even though a long tail of single-filing entrants persists below them. Filings rose from 587 records in 2017 to a peak of 1,275 in 2021, then eased to 854 by 2024, a -33% move over that three-year window. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent bars understate real activity rather than showing a genuine slowdown.
- 1PURE STORAGE INC4.9%
- 2ORACLE INT CORP4.6%
- 3NVIDIA CORP3.0%
- 4SOPHOS LTD2.2%
- 5DIEBOLD NIXDORF INCORPORATED2.0%
See the full digital identity & credentials 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 on the digital identity patent landscape
Who holds the most digital identity and credential patents?
The ranked assignee list covers 100 companies, with the leader holding 596 records, well ahead of fifth place at 239 and tenth place at 177. The top 5 combined account for 16.7% of all 12,194 records in scope, and the top 10 account for 25.1%, so while there is a clear leader, the majority of filings sit outside the top ranks in a long tail of smaller filers. This means competitive risk is spread across many entities rather than concentrated in one or two dominant players.
Is patent filing in digital identity and credentials growing or slowing?
Filing activity peaked in 2021 at 1,275 records and had fallen to 854 by 2024, a -33% change over that three-year span, which is a genuine contraction rather than a data artefact since 2024 is the last year with reasonably complete publication data. Figures for 2025 and 2026 appear lower still, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than an actual drop-off. Treat any apparent decline in the most recent one to two years with caution until later publications catch up.
What technology areas dominate digital identity patent claims?
H04L, covering digital information transmission, appears in 61.1% of the 12,194 records in scope, and G06F, covering electric digital data processing, appears in 48.0%, making these the two dominant classes by a wide margin. G06Q (business and commerce data processing) and H04W (wireless communication networks) follow at 22.6% and 16.6% respectively. Narrower classes such as G06N (AI-based computing), G06V (image and video recognition) and G07F (vending apparatus) each sit under 5% of records, marking areas with comparatively less claim density.
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 Digital Identity & Credentials 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.