Software Testing Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Software testing and quality engineering patents: filing trends, leading assignees and open claim space
22.4% concentration at the top. The five most active assignees combined account for 2,291 of the 10,246 records in scope — a concentrated core with a long tail below it. Annual filings rose from 528 in 2017 to a peak of 696 in 2023. The 2021-to-2024 span shows a 9% increase, from 573 to 627 records — real growth, not a plateau, even as the final two years in the chart understate true filing volume due to publication lag.
- 1INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION13.6%
- 2MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC4.3%
- 3SAP SE1.7%
- 4TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD1.6%
- 5WIPRO LTD1.2%
See the full software testing & quality engineering 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 this landscape
Who holds the most software testing patents?
One assignee leads clearly with 1,395 records in this dataset, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 124 and the tenth at 89. The five most active assignees together account for 2,291 records, 22.4% of the 10,246 records in scope, which means the remaining filers form a long tail rather than a second tight cluster. This pattern is typical of enterprise software categories where a handful of large vendors and IT services firms file continuously while most other entrants file only occasionally.
Is patent filing in software testing growing or slowing?
Filing grew over the last fully-observable period: from 573 records in 2021 to 627 in 2024, a 9% increase, with the single highest year so far being 2023 at 696 records. Figures for 2025 and 2026 appear lower in the raw trend, but that reflects publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than an actual drop in filing activity. Any assessment of the most recent one to two years should be treated as provisional until later publications catch up.
What technology areas dominate software testing patents?
The overwhelming majority of records, 89.3% of the 10,246 in scope, carry the G06F classification for electric digital data processing, confirming this field is claimed primarily as general data-processing technology. AI-based computing under G06N appears on 10.1% of records, and digital transmission (H04L), business data processing (G06Q), and smaller shares in wireless networks, data recognition, control systems and pictorial communication round out the composition. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages sum to well over 100% and should not be read as parts of a whole.
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 Software Testing & Quality Engineering 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.