Spotify Patents – Key Insights and Stats

With over 356 million monthly active users and 158 million paying subscribers, Spotify is the world’s largest music streaming service. Founded in 2006 in Sweden, Spotify is available in 178 countries and has a library of 90 million songs.

Below are 14 key statistics and insights on Spotify patents. Don’t forget to share your thoughts on analysis in the comments.

How many patents does Spotify have?

Spotify has a total of 752 patents globally. These patents belong to 275 unique patent families. Out of 752 patents, 614 patents are active.

How many Spotify patents are Alive/Dead?

Worldwide Patents

Spotify Patents Worldwide Legal Terms

Patent Families

Spotify Active & Inactive Patents

How Many Patents did Spotify File Every Year?

Spotify Patent filing term

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.

How Many Patents did Spotify File in Different Countries?

Spotify Patent Filing Worldwide

What Technologies are Covered by Spotify Patents?

Spotify Technology Area Patents

The chart below distributes patents filed by Spotify in different countries on the basis of the technology protected in patents. It also represents the markets where Spotify thinks it’s important to protect particular technology inventions.

Technology Protected in Different countries

Where are Research Centers of Spotify Located?

Spotify R&D Center

R&D FocusHow Spotify Research Focus Changed Over the Years?

 Technology Through The Years

10 Best Spotify Patents

US20160260140A1 is the most popular patent in the Spotify portfolio. It has received 80 citations so far from companies like Sonos Inc, Amper Music Inc, and Shutterstock Inc.

Below is the list of 10 most cited patents of Spotify:

Publication NumberCitation Count
US20160260140A180
USD830375S173
USD815130S159
US9934785B158
USD815128S148
US20140289241A146
USD824924S146
US8898766B242
USD781906S137
USD815127S137

Which Companies are using Spotify 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-cited technologies in the Spotify patent portfolio are Media Streaming, Recommendation System & User Interface. Google, Apple, and Facebook as the top forward citing assignees

CompanyNumber of Patents
Google14
Apple7
Facebook6
Microsoft6
Sony6
Amazon5
AT&T5
Samsung4
Verizon Patent And Licensing Inc4
IBM3

How many inventions of other companies were rejected due to Spotify patents?

The statistics below share strategic R&D insights. It tells the companies that were trying to protect inventions similar to Spotify. They couldn’t because Spotify had protected those before them.

Examiners at the USPTO used 82 Spotify patents in 403 rejections (35 USC § 102 or 35 USC § 103 types). Below is the distribution of the number of blocked patent applications vs the technology cluster of Spotify patents.

Spotify Patent Portfolio

Count of 102 and 103 Type Rejections based on Spotify Patents

Spotify Blocked Patent by Application

Top Spotify Patents used in Rejecting Most Patent Applications

Patent NumberCount of Rejected Applications
US9043850B218
US9319445B214
US8073854B29
US10620797B28
US8280539B28
US9195383B27
US20140289241A17
US10440075B26
US9883284B26
US9380059B26
US9529888B26
US9063640B26
US8898766B26
US9246967B25
US20190327139A15

What Percentage of Spotify US Patent Applications were Granted?

Spotify (Excluding its subsidiaries) has filed 343 patent applications at USPTO so far (Excluding Design and PCT applications). Out of these 217 have been granted leading to a grant rate of 88.93%.

Below are the key stats of Spotify’s patent prosecution at the USPTO.

Which Law Firms Filed Most US Patents for Spotify?

Law FirmTotal ApplicationsSuccess Rate
Merchant & Gould16696.15%
Morgan Lewis & Bockius8990.77%
Tucker Ellis8777.03%
Moore & Van Allen1100.00%

Technology Analysis By: Navjyot Singh, Insights;Gate Team

One more thing, We have converted this entire analysis in PDF form that you can download and save for later reading (or sharing with your friends). You can download it using the form below:

Updated on September 15, 2022

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