Distributed Ledger Technology Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
Distributed Ledger Technology Patents: Who Leads and Where Filing Is Heading
33.2% of all 12,315 records sit with just five companies — concentration is real, but the remaining two-thirds is a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants. Filings rose from 356 in 2017 to a peak of 2,378 in 2019, then declined to 983 by 2024 — a 38% drop from the 2021 level of 1,591. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in due to publication lag and should not be read as a continuation of decline.
- 1INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION11.8%
- 2ADVANCED NEW TECHNOLOGIES CO LTD7.9%
- 3TOYOTA MOTOR NORTH AMERICA INC6.5%
- 4PURE STORAGE INC4.0%
- 5MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC3.0%
See the full distributed ledger technology 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 distributed ledger technology patents
Who holds the most distributed ledger technology patents?
The dataset’s ranked leaders come from financial infrastructure, enterprise software, storage and automotive sectors, with the top five filers combined holding 33.2% of all 12,315 records in scope and the top ten holding 41.3%. That leaves a majority of records distributed across a long tail of filers who appear only a handful of times each. This mix reflects how many industries are attaching ledger claims to existing compute and transaction-processing patent portfolios rather than one company owning the space outright.
Is distributed ledger technology patent filing still growing?
No — filing peaked at 2,378 records in 2019 and had fallen to 983 by 2024, a 38% decline from the 2021 level of 1,591. That decline is measured using years that have already cleared the roughly 18-month publication lag, so it reflects genuine filing behaviour rather than an artifact of recent data still filling in. Figures from 2025 onward should be read cautiously since they are still incomplete.
What technology areas dominate distributed ledger patent claims?
Digital information transmission (H04L) and general electric digital data processing (G06F) are the two largest classes, covering 55.0% and 47.6% of all 12,315 records respectively, with business and commerce data processing (G06Q) close behind at 41.6%. Wireless networks, AI-model computing, vehicle propulsion and vehicle control classes are all present but each covers under 6% of records. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100%, which is expected.
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 Distributed Ledger Technology 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.