We monitored the patent publications of Alibaba for the past 20 years at the USPTO. Its patent portfolio has its footprints in 28 different technology areas ranging from Databases and File Management to Business Methods.
Below are the top technology areas of their interest –
| Technology Areas | Number of Applications |
| Databases and File Management | 63 |
| Computer Networks | 31 |
| Cryptography and Security | 29 |
| Business Methods – Incentive Programs, Coupons; Electronic Shopping; Business Cryptography, Voting; Health Care; Point of Sale, Inventory, Accounting; Business Processing, Electronic Negotiation | 29 |
| Graphic User Interface and Document Processing | 25 |
| Electronic and Commerce | 25 |
Which assignees faced the most rejections?
Since they have patents covering a wide array of technologies so we thought why not check which type of companies are getting blocked by these patents. Refer to the table below for more information:
| Number of Blocked assignees | 159 |
| Number of publications monitored | 1841 |
| Publications involved in rejections | 188 |
| Number of 102/103 rejections | 522 |
Interestingly, ~500 rejections (102/103) were given based on Alibaba’s patents. It would be even more interesting to see which companies are getting rejections based on Alibaba’s patents.
The below chart shows the top competitors which get maximum rejections because of Alibaba’s patents.
| Assignee | Applications Blocked | 102 Rejections |
| IBM | 22 | 1 |
| Samsung Electronics | 14 | 6 |
| 15 | 1 | |
| Tencent Technology | 14 | 4 |
| Microsoft | 15 | 0 |
| EBAY | 5 | 0 |
| Walmart Apollo | 6 | 2 |
| Sony | 4 | 2 |
| Fujitsu | 5 | 2 |
| Excalibur IP | 3 | 0 |
| Rakuten | 4 | 0 |
| Amazon Technologies | 7 | 1 |
| OATH INC | 4 | 2 |
| The Bank of Newyork Mellon Trust Company | 5 | 2 |
| Verizon Patent and Licensing | 4 | 1 |
| Apple | 5 | 0 |
| Qualcomm | 4 | 0 |
| Mastercard | 2 | 0 |
We used our proprietary tool BOS to track which assignees were getting blocked by Alibaba’s patents.