Digital Identity Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- 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 cooled from a 2021 peak. Activity ran from 1,275 records in 2021 to 854 in 2024, a -33% pullback over that span, though publication lag means the newest years will still fill in.
- H04L and G06F dominate the claim space. 61.1% of records touch digital information transmission and 48.0% touch electric digital data processing, leaving narrower classes like image/video recognition and vending apparatus comparatively open.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,275 records) with 2024 (854) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 12,194 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape maps 12,194 patent records published between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off that combine digital identity or credential-management language with technical mechanisms such as identity tokens, credential verification, biometric templates, liveness detection or key management. The search deliberately pairs a conceptual layer (digital identity, identity management) with an implementation layer (biometric template, key management), so the corpus skews toward claims that go beyond policy or business-process description into working authentication mechanics.
Records here span the full stack from network-level authentication protocols to biometric capture hardware and vending or kiosk-style identity checkpoints, which is why the IPC composition below shows heavy overlap between transmission, data processing and wireless classes rather than a single dominant technology bucket.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Publication counts by year and by IPC subclass, drawn from the same 12,194-record set used throughout this page. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, the technology shares below sum to more than 100% of records.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
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.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H04L (digital information transmission) and G06F (electric digital data processing) between them touch the majority of records, reflecting how much of this field is protocol- and software-level rather than pure hardware. G06N (AI-based computing), G06V (image/video recognition) and G07F (vending apparatus) sit well below 5% of records each, marking narrower but still active pockets of claim activity.
Shares are the percentage of the 12,194 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Digital Identity & Credentials Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about digital identity & credentials patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative and most-cited records
Key management method and apparatus (US12567963B2)
Disclosed are a key management method and a key management apparatus, where the key management method includes acquiring authorization of a user through a first identity authentication mode to generate a first authentication encryption key, where the first identity authentication mode is used for logging into a digital identity, and encrypting at least one character decryption key by using the first authentication encryption key to obtain at least one initially encrypted character decryption key corresponding to the first identity authentication mode, where the at least one character decryption key is in a one-to-one correspondence with at least one character of the digital identity.Filed by Beijing Sursen Information Technology Co., Ltd.; published 2026-03-03.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20090254572A1 | Digital information infrastructure and method | 2,824 |
| 2 | US6571282B1 | Block-based communication in a communication services patterns environment | 2,353 |
| 3 | US20060165060A1 | Method and apparatus for managing credentials through a wireless network | 2,167 |
| 4 | US20070087756A1 | Multifactorial optimization system and method | 1,866 |
| 5 | US20100250497A1 | Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) hardened information infrastructure with extractor, cloud dispersal, secure stora… | 1,773 |
| 6 | US6289382B1 | System, method and article of manufacture for a globally addressable interface in a communication services pa… | 1,527 |
| 7 | US20030058277A1 | A view configurer in a presentation services patterns enviroment | 1,472 |
| 8 | US20050044197A1 | Structured methodology and design patterns for web services | 1,459 |
| 9 | US6332163B1 | Method for providing communication services over a computer network system | 1,392 |
| 10 | US20170041296A1 | Systems and methods of secure data exchange | 1,321 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside the searched corpus; treat them as a signal of influence rather than of current technical importance.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing strategy
Three figures matter most when deciding where to file next: how concentrated the field already is, whether the pullback since 2021 is real, and which IPC classes carry the bulk of the claim density.
Leadership is real but not overwhelming
The five most active assignees account for 2,033 of 12,194 records, and the top ten add up to 25.1%. That leaves roughly three-quarters of the field spread across a long tail, meaning a new entrant is not necessarily filing into a monopoly, but is filing into crowded IPC classes regardless of who holds them.
The 2021 peak has not been sustained
Filings dropped from 1,275 records in 2021 to 854 in 2024. That is a genuine three-year contraction, not an artefact of publication lag, since 2024 is the last year that can be treated as complete. Whether this reflects consolidation of core claims or a shift toward trade secrecy in identity mechanics is not answerable from filing counts alone.
Transmission-layer claims dominate
H04L (digital information transmission) and G06F (data processing) each cover roughly half or more of records, confirming that most identity and credential claims are being fought at the protocol and software layer rather than in dedicated biometric hardware or vending-style capture devices, which sit under 4% each.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to digital identity & credentials patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is active, and where the field still has room
The ranked assignee list covers 100 companies, from a leader with 596 records down through a long tail. Recent-year momentum diverges sharply even among the largest filers, and several under-claimed technical branches remain visible in the IPC mix.
A clear leader, but no monopoly
The top-ranked assignee holds 596 records, well ahead of fifth place at 239 and tenth place at 177. That gap shows genuine leadership in filing volume, but the top 10 still account for only 25.1% of the 12,194 records in scope, so the remaining claim space is contestable.
Momentum is uneven across the leaders
Most of the largest filers slowed sharply in the latest year, with drops as steep as -89% year-on-year for one major filer. One ranked assignee, Ericsson, moved in the opposite direction with +200% YoY growth off a small base of 3 records, a reminder that recent-year counts are still incomplete and volatile.
Collaboration is rare and concentrated
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest pairings link a company to a named individual inventor rather than to another corporate entity. Cross-company joint filing is not a meaningful pattern in this field yet.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA Corporation | 6 | -57% |
| Pure Storage, Inc. | 4 | -89% |
| Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson | 3 | +200% |
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 3 | -63% |
| Oracle International Corporation | 2 | -71% |
| STRONG FORCE TX PORTFOLIO 2018 LLC | 2 | -85% |
| SOPHOS LTD | 1 | -95% |
| Apple Inc. | 1 | -67% |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is defensive clearance, acquisition targeting or new filing strategy.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on H04L and G06F claims
With 61.1% and 48.0% of records respectively touching these two classes, any new authentication or credential-verification mechanism is likely to sit near existing claims. A targeted clearance search on the specific mechanism, not just the class, is the efficient next step.
Explore this landscape in EurekaTrack momentum, not just volume, among the largest filers
Year-on-year swings as sharp as -89% and +200% among ranked leaders suggest some are pulling back from this claim space while others are re-entering it. Monitoring filing momentum quarter by quarter gives earlier warning than annual totals.
Set up assignee tracking in EurekaProbe the under-claimed branches before filing broad
Classes like G06V and G07F sit under 4% of records each. A narrower first claim aimed at one of these branches may clear more easily than a broad identity-management claim competing directly with H04L incumbents.
Draft and check claims in EurekaCommon questions on the digital identity patent landscape
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.
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.
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.
US12567963B2, filed by Beijing Sursen Information Technology, covers a key management method that generates an authentication encryption key from a first identity authentication mode used to log into a digital identity, then uses that key to encrypt character decryption keys mapped one-to-one to characters of the digital identity. It is relevant to anyone building multi-factor key management tied to digital identity login flows, particularly schemes that partition decryption keys by identity component. Teams working on similar character-level or component-level key encryption schemes for identity systems should review its claims closely before designing a similar architecture.
Based on IPC composition, the narrower classes G06V (image/video recognition), G06N (AI-based computing) and G07F (vending and kiosk-style identity checkpoints) each cover under 5% of the 12,194 records in scope, well below the 61.1% and 48.0% seen in the two dominant transmission and data-processing classes. This suggests comparatively less claim density in liveness-detection sensor fusion, AI-driven credential risk scoring, and biometric template revocation mechanisms. These branches are worth a focused clearance search before filing, since lower density does not guarantee an empty field, only a less crowded one.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.