As reported on Hunton’s Blockchain Legal Resource blog, in the race to develop blockchain technology, companies are increasingly devoting capital to creating proprietary blockchain solutions. A search of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (“USPTO”) as of today returns 355 patent applications that contain either “blockchain” or “distributed ledger” in the abstract. Patents are being filed related to a wide variety of industries and applications, including supply chain management, autonomous deliveries, energy networks, electronic health records, 3D printing, travel itinerary management, data security and securing rights to digital media.

The list below is not exhaustive, and represents a sample of some of the blockchain-related patent applications that have been publicly released during the last few months.

Cisco Technology, Inc.

Fujitsu Limited

General Electric Company

Mastercard International Incorporated

Moog, Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation

Sony Corporation / Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.

Walmart Stores, Inc.