eBay has a total of 6111 patents globally, out of which 2948 have been granted. Of these 6111 patents, more than 57% patents are active. USA is where eBay has filed the maximum number of patents, followed by South Korea and China, it has generated an annual revenue of $10.271 billion in the year 2020. Parallelly, USA seems to be the main focused R&D center and is also the origin country of eBay.
eBay was founded in the year 1995 by Pierre Omidyar. eBay is a San Jose, California-based international e-commerce company that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. As of March 2022, eBay has a market cap of $32.74 Billion.
Do read about some of the most popular patents of eBay which have been covered by us in this article and also you can find eBay’s patents information, the worldwide patent filing activity and its patent filing trend over the years, and many other stats over eBay’s patent portfolio.
How many patents does the founder and the CEO of eBay have?
The founder, Pierre Omidyar, has 30 patents. The CEO, Jamie Iannone, has 0 patents.
How many patents does eBay have?
eBay has a total of 6111 patents globally. These patents belong to 2037 unique patent families. Out of 6111 patents, 3504 patents are active.
How many eBay patents are Alive/Dead?
Worldwide Patents
Patent Families
How Many Patents did eBay File Every Year?
Are you wondering why there is a drop in patent filing for the last two years? It is because a patent application can take up to 18 months to get published. Certainly, it doesn’t suggest a decrease in the patent filing.
| Year of Patents Filing or Grant | eBay Applications Filed | eBay Patents Granted |
| 2011 | 233 | 103 |
| 2012 | 498 | 108 |
| 2013 | 468 | 124 |
| 2014 | 748 | 161 |
| 2015 | 646 | 166 |
| 2016 | 408 | 277 |
| 2017 | 476 | 308 |
| 2018 | 385 | 308 |
| 2019 | 450 | 357 |
| 2020 | 275 | 333 |
| 2021 | 191 | 377 |
| 2022 | – | 63 |
How Many Patents did eBay File in Different Countries?
Countries in which eBay Filed Patents
| Country | Patents |
| United States Of America | 3506 |
| Korea (South) | 477 |
| China | 386 |
| Europe | 305 |
| Australia | 235 |
| Canada | 121 |
| Japan | 53 |
| Germany | 45 |
| India | 37 |
| Taiwan | 14 |
| Singapore | 11 |
| Brazil | 11 |
| Russia | 10 |
| Mexico | 6 |
| Malaysia | 5 |
| United Kingdom | 5 |
| Hong Kong (S.A.R.) | 3 |
| Austria | 2 |
| South Africa | 2 |
| Spain | 1 |
| Netherlands | 1 |
| Denmark | 1 |
Where are Research Centres of eBay Patents Located?
10 Best eBay Patents
US6356879B2 is the most popular patent in the Ebay portfolio. It has received 357 citations so far from companies like Fujitsu, Xerox Corporation, and IBM.
Below is the list of 10 most cited patents of Ebay:
| Publication Number | Citation Count |
| US6356879B2 | 357 |
| US7128274B2 | 300 |
| US6466917B1 | 283 |
| US6529136B2 | 265 |
| US6415320B1 | 263 |
| US6523037B1 | 245 |
| US6748422B2 | 232 |
| US20040093302A1 | 228 |
| US6732161B1 | 222 |
| US6363365B1 | 222 |
Which Companies are using eBay Patents to Advance their Research?
If patents or patents from a particular technology area of a company receive a lot of citations, it implies that the technology is being followed and incrementally innovated by the citing companies. It also indicates that citing companies are working on similar and closely related technologies.
The top citing companies in the eBay patent portfolio are IBM, Microsoft, and Google.
List of the top forward citing Companies –
| Company | Number of Patents |
| IBM | 276 |
| Microsoft | 195 |
| 164 | |
| Amazon | 100 |
| Walmart Apollo | 93 |
| 78 | |
| Samsung | 75 |
| JP Morgan Chase Bank | 56 |
| Sony | 46 |
| Bank Of America | 46 |
Count of 102 and 103 Type Rejections based on eBay Patents
Top eBay Patents used in Rejecting Most Patent Applications
| Patent Number | Count of Rejected Applications |
| US8494978B2 | 28 |
| US8666909B2 | 25 |
| US9898742B2 | 23 |
| US7814112B2 | 20 |
| US7805339B2 | 20 |
| US8533208B2 | 19 |
| US7752190B2 | 17 |
| US6529136B2 | 17 |
| US10936650B2 | 17 |
| US8887163B2 | 16 |
| US7181426B2 | 16 |
| US7606821B2 | 16 |
| US8943181B2 | 15 |
| US8954422B2 | 15 |
| US7958066B2 | 15 |
What Percentage of eBay US Patent Applications were Granted?
eBay (Excluding its subsidiaries) has filed 5837 patent applications at USPTO so far (Excluding Design and PCT applications). Out of these 3645 have been granted leading to a grant rate of 70.69%.
Below are the key stats of eBay patent prosecution at the USPTO.
Which Law Firms Filed Most US Patents for eBay?
| Law Firm | Total Application | Success Rate |
| eBay Inc. | 6022 | 68.47% |
| Paypal, Inc. | 2366 | 66.17% |
| International Business Machines Corporation | 308 | 92.11% |
| Sundaresan, Neelakantan | 218 | 76.62% |
| Stubhub, Inc. | 123 | 72.34% |
| Piramuthu, Robinson | 98 | 86.11% |
| Zamer, Kamal | 93 | 52.44% |
| Melcher, Ryan | 83 | 76.62% |
| Jpmorgan Chase Bank, N.A. | 78 | 92.59% |
| Yankovich, Steve | 76 | 74.63% |
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What are eBay’s key innovation segments?