CybersecurityA Patent Landscape Report covering the past ten years of innovation in protecting computing devices and data

China is filing patents on cybersecurity at an unprecedented level and has recently surpassed the rest of the world in seeking patent protection in this area recently. They are particularly interested in the sub-category of authentication.

China has edged out the United States for total number of cybersecurity inventions over the past ten years.

IBM has the largest collection of cybersecurity patent families, followed by fellow US company Microsoft, however Intel had the highest number of families starting in 2016.

IBM was the number one assignee in four of theseven sub-categories and was in the top 10 for allthe rest.China has 9 of the top 25 companies in this study.

Chinese companies Tencent, Huawei, Alibaba, Lenovo, ZTE, and Xiaomi file a significant number of their inventions in the US as well as China. Seeking protection in jurisdictions other than China is a clear signal of the importance these companies place on these innovations and their likely quality.

Qualcomm files for nearly 60% of their inventions in China as well as the US. This is the highest percentage of any US company in the top 25 when the two jurisdictions are compared.

In the sub-category of protecting wireless networks, Samsung has almost twice as many inventions than Qualcomm, but Qualcomm is the largest influencer in the space with citation connections to most of the other major players.

Headlines

Introduction

Cybersecurity, computer security or IT security is the protection of computer systems from theft of or damage to their hardware, software or electronic data, as well as from disruption or misdirection of the services they provide.

Cybersecurity includes controlling physical access to system hardware, as well as protecting against harm that may be done via network access, malicious data and code injection. Also, due to malpractice by operators, whether intentional or accidental, IT security personnel are susceptible to being tricked into deviating from secure procedures through various methods of social engineering.

The field is of growing importance due to increasing reliance on computer systems, the Internet and wireless networks such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and due to the growth of "smart" devices, including smartphones, televisions and the various tiny devices that constitute the Internet of Things.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_security

History

In 1989, the first computer worm was created by Robert Morris. So aggressive in nature, this self-propagating virus proceeded to close down much of the internet. It was considered to be the first widespread denial of service attack in the cyber world.

Viruses began to emerge in the 1990’s such as the Melissa and ILOVEYOU viruses, and with this the beginning of the emergence of antivirus technology.

In the 2000’s computer security began to hit companies such as the more than 44.7 million credit card numbers stolen from TJX Corporation. More recently, the Target Corporation reported having over 40 million credit/debit cards information taken.

Regardless of whether you are an individual sitting at home on a computing device, a large corporation, or a national government, cybersecurity is an important facet of daily digital life.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/opinions/the-history-of-cybersecurity/

MarketAnalysis firm Cybersecurity Ventures has predicted that global spending on cybersecurity products and services will exceed $1 trillion cumulatively over the next five years, from 2017 to 2021.

Cybersecurity Ventures claims that in 2004, the global cybersecurity market was worth $3.5 billion

— and in 2017 it was expected to be worth more than $120 billion.

The White House has stated that the U.S. Government will invest over $19 billion for cybersecurity as part of the President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 Budget. That was up from the $14 billion budgeted in 2016. This represented a more than 35 percent increase from FY 2016 in overall Federal resources for cybersecurity, a necessary investment to secure the US in the future.

• The cybersecurity market grew by roughly 35X over the past 13 years

• J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. doubled its annual cybersecurity budget from $250 million to $500 million

• The Bank of America has gone on the record stating it has an unlimited budget when it comes to combating cybercrime

• Microsoft Corp. will continue to invest over $1 billion annually on cybersecurity research and development in the coming years, according to a senior executive at the tech giant

https://cybersecurityventures.com/cybersecurity-market-report/

OVERVIEW

China is filing patents on cybersecurity at an unprecedented level and has far surpassed the rest of the world in seeking patent protection in this area recently.• Since there is an 18-month lag between when

patents are applied for and when they publish the dip seen in 2016 is typical for a growing or stable technology domain

• This fact of patenting makes the trend line for China even more startling

• Korea while on a smaller scale also shows an uptick in publications with a 2016 earliest priority year signaling considerable growth from that country

• The United States was the leading priority country for patent filings until 2014 and saw a steady increase in filings from 2010 to 2014

• Patent filings originating from Japan have been stable after a decline between 2008 and 2010

Cybersecurity Patent Families by Priority Country and Earliest Priority Year

Full Collection Dashboard

In this study more than 97K patent families over the course of 10 years including the top six patenting jurisdictions were analyzed.

This represents more than 48K granted patents, and 220K applications. The dashboard includes family members from various jurisdictions so in this case the United States has slightly more families where a US document is included than the ones that contain a Chinese member.

The dashboard also identifies some of the major concepts in this collection including certification authorities, authentication, computer viruses, identity management and theft, and data storage. Discussion of some of these subcategories will be covered in a subsequent section.

China has edged out the United States for total number of cybersecurity inventions over the past ten years.• As seen in the dashboard the US still has a slight

edge in the number of families that include a US member, but this is mostly due to the propensity for companies to file patents in the US more frequently than they do in China. This trend will change over time as more companies seek protection in China as well as the US

• The Europe group includes all of the countries in the European Union that may have been included as the first priority country, but even with this concession the number of patent families originating from Europe is the smallest of the jurisdictions studied

• Japan like the US has a long history in this area, but it is quickly being surpassed by South Korea who has nearly caught up to them by family count

Cybersecurity Patent Families by Top Jurisdictions

The number of families including US members is still rising, but the rate of growth has slowed. China’s rate of growth is still rising and growing faster recently and has surpassed the US.• Comparing the United States directly to China, a

rapid increase in families including a US member can be seen from 2008 to 2014. Since 2014 though, while there has still been growth, the rate at which it is occurring has slowed considerably

• China has also seen steady increases, but the rate of growth was slower than the US until 2012, when the rate began increasing much faster than the US’

• China caught up in this regard in 2016 and its rate has continued to rise almost exponentially

Cybersecurity Patent Families by Earliest Priority Year from the United States and China

IBM has the largest collection of cybersecurity patent families, followed by fellow US company Microsoft.

• Samsung, a Korean company takes the third position followed by two Japanese companies, NEC and Canon to round out the top 5

• Chinese companies Oppo, Tencent, Alibaba, Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, Computer Telecommunication Science and Technology, Xiaomi, and Qizhi Software can be found in the top 25 organizations in the data set

• Japan is also well represented with eight companies in the top 25

• Outside of the top 5 the United States is also represented by Intel and Google in the top 10 as well as HP, and Symantec in the top 25

Cybersecurity Patent Families by Top Assignees

Microsoft and Intel file substantially more patents in China than IBM, the top US filer, does.

• Chinese companies Tencent and Huawei file a significant number of their inventions in the US as well as China. Alibaba, Lenovo, ZTE, and Xiaomi also file an above average number of inventions outside of China

• Having this many Chinese companies in the top 25 who are seeking protection in jurisdictions other than China is a clear signal of the importance they place on these innovations and their likely quality

• Qualcomm files for nearly 60% of their inventions in China as well as the US. This is the highest of any US company in the top 25 when these two jurisdictions are compared

Cybersecurity Patent Families by Top Assignees in the United States and China

The top concept in cybersecurity by family count is Access Control.

• Nine sub-categories were reviewed in this study and will be covered in the next section. In addition to these the concept landscape highlights, some more specific areas that can be explored in Analytics V2 including:

• Card Readers

• Biometric Data

• Gesture Recognition

• Computer Viruses

• Web Applications

• Security Levels

• Rights Management

• Mobile Devices

Cybersecurity Concept Clusters Landscape

SUB-CATEGORIES

Protecting Wireless Networks DashboardSecurity arrangements must be put into place to protect privacy and anonymity of users of a wireless system. A practice known as wardriving involves individuals equipped with a computer, a wireless card, and a GPS device, driving through areas in search of wireless networks and identifying the specific coordinates of a network location. These are then used to infiltrate the wireless networks.

Authentication techniques such as key management, data encryption, secure access, anti-virus software, firewalls and fraud detection are integral to maintain a secure wireless environment.

This sub-category contains almost 7K families, more than 4K granted patents, and 30K applications.

Major concepts in this collection include: gesture recognition, biometric data, authentication, and encrypted data.

Protecting wireless networks is the rare sub-category in cybersecurity where China has the smallest number of families over the last ten years.

• The United States has more than 3X the number of families in this category compared to South Korea, the second highest jurisdiction

• The Europe group of countries is just behind South Korea in the third position followed by Japan

• Less than a few hundred families separate the jurisdictions after the United States

Protecting Wireless Networks Patent Families by Top Jurisdictions

Samsung has almost twice as many patent families assigned to them in the field of protecting wireless networks than Qualcomm.

• 10 of the top 15 assignees in this area manufacture mobile devices for public sale

• Qualcomm, a known supplier of chips to the mobile device community is the second highest assignee, but Intel and IBM are also in the top ten as suppliers

• Chinese companies Huawei, and ZTE are in the 10th and 11th positions by patent family count and both are slightly higher than Apple in this metric

Protecting Wireless Networks Patent Families by Top Assignees

While Samsung has the highest number of families in the protecting wireless networks sub-category, the Qualcomm portfolio is the most influential when citation patterns in this space are investigated.

• Apple has the second most influential portfolio based on forward citation network mapping

• Google, Nokia, Microsoft and Blackberry also have influential portfolios compared to Samsung

• Citrix, McAfee, and Visa are surprisingly influential, and make connections with different companies than the device makers

Protecting Wireless Networks Forward Citation Network Map

Protecting Wireless Networks Forward Citation Network –Qualcomm has connections to the most companies

Protecting Wireless Networks Forward Citation Network –Apple also connected to a number of Chinese companies

Protecting Wireless Networks Forward Citation Network –Google is well connected to other device makers

Protecting Wireless Networks Forward Citation Network – Xiaomi is the most influential Chinese company with many connections to key players

Protecting Wired Networks DashboardUnauthorized activity on a wired computer network is always of concern. The ways in which this threat can be minimized widely varies.

Techniques can be used by themselves or in combination with others to form a “multiple layer” defense against an attack.

Things such as firewalls, filtering, anonymous communication, varying forms of encryption, authentication and different counter measures against malicious attacks are just some of the ways in which protection of the networks can be achieved.

This sub-category contains almost 20K families, more than 12K granted patents, and 73K applications.

Major concepts include: rights managements, computer viruses, access control, identity theft and signature.

The United States is the dominant jurisdiction in protecting wired networks, with more than 5X the number of families than China, the next largest country.

• Europe is once again the jurisdiction with the third highest number of families

• South Korea has the smallest number of patent families even though Samsung is the fifth largest assignee by patent family count

Protecting Wired Networks Patent Families by Top Jurisdictions

IBM and Microsoft, the number one and two companies overall in cybersecurity are also in these positions in the protecting wired networks sub-category.

• 12 of the top 25 assignees in this area have their headquarters in the United States

• Symantec, Amazon and McAfee make their way into the top ten in this sub-category in the 6th, 8th and 9th positions respectively

• Chinese companies Tencent, Huawei and Alibaba can be found in the top 25

• Japanese companies Fujitsu, and Canon are in the top 15, and Ricoh and Sony are in the top 25

Protecting Wired Networks Patent Families by Top Assignees

Encrypted Communications DashboardEncrypting communication is mainly focused on the protocols and algorithms used to maintain secret and/or secure communication. This can involve the use of encryption schemes, digital signatures, hash functions, random number generation and key management.

Quantum key distribution is a form of quantum cryptology which offers a theoretically secure solution to the key exchange problem. These cryptographic mechanisms provide information security such as privacy or confidentiality, data integrity, message authentication, entity authentication, authorization, validation, certification, time-stamping, anonymity, revocation and non-repudiation. This area also includes counter-measures used against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms.

This sub-category contains mare than 18K families, 11K granted patents, and 62K applications.

Major concepts include: biometric data, hash function, encryption key, and USB autorun devices.

Japan has the highest jurisdictional placement in cybersecurity in the encrypted communications sub-category, but the United States still has almost twice as many families in this field.

• China is the jurisdiction with the third highest number of families

• South Korea and Europe are in the 4th and 5th place and do not have very many assignees in the top 25 for the sub-category

Encrypted Communications Patent Families by Top Jurisdictions

IBM and Microsoft are once again the number one and two companies in the encrypted communications sub-category.

• Japan has the highest number of companies in the top 25 in this sub-category with ten including 7 in the top 11

• Samsung and ETRI represent Korea in the top 25

• Nokia and Siemens are European representatives in this area

• Chinese top 25 companies include Alibaba and Huawei

• Intel joins IBM and Microsoft as the only US companies in the top 10, but they are in the top 3 positions

Encrypted Communications Patent Families by Top Assignees

Secure Payment Protocols DashboardHigh security of monetary transactions is crucial to keeping the cyber world and its customers safe. In order for payments to be secure, this may involve the use of certificates or encrypted proof of transactions. There are multiple encryption tools that can be used alone or in combination with each other such as electronic signatures which certify a person/company’s digital identity, message hashing in which values are generated from a string of text using mathematical functions, or key management in which cryptographic keys are used for maintaining secure payment protocols.

This sub-category contains more than 4K families, 1.4K granted patents, and 12K applications.

Major concepts include: debit card, POS systems, credit card numbers, payment information, and gesture recognition.

South Korea is a surprise entry in the secure payment protocols sub-category, in second place just behind the United States, and just ahead of China. This is their highest ranking in cybersecurity.

• Japan does not appear to have many families in this particular sub-category

• Europe is also under represented in this sub-category with one fourth of the families seen with the top three jurisdictions

Secure Payment Protocols Patent Families by Top Jurisdictions

Four of the top five assignees in the secure payment protocols sub-category are large financial institutions from the United States.

• Bizmodeline, a Korean think-tank focusing on the fields of finance and billing, mobile payments, and RFID and NFC systems has the largest number of families in this sub-category

• China has two companies, Alibaba, and China Unionpay in the top 10, and 8 in the top 25

• Korea also has Samsung as the 6th highest assignee and five companies in the top 25

Secure Payment Protocols Patent Families by Top Assignees

Authentication Dashboard

Authentication is establishing the identity of a person or at times a machine using passwords, smartcards, PIN numbers or even biometrics, including fingerprints, voice recognition or retinal scans.

Authentication can be very simple as in just a password, involve two factors like the combination of a password/username and a token/code sent to a phone, or multifactor which would involve the above and another information collection point such as biometrics.

This sub-category contains more than 38K families, 17K granted patents, and 90K applications.

Major concepts include: touch input, single sign, user identity, display device, signature, and biometric authentication.

China’s ascendancy to a leading position in cybersecurity has come through its enormous number of patent families in the authentication sub-category.

• Almost 13% of the entire cybersecurity collection is made up of Chinese families in this sub-category

• Japan also has a larger than average number of families in this sub-category, nearly as many as the United States

• South Korea and Europe occupy the fourth and fifth positions, but in both cases this is their largest sub- category in this collection

Authentication Patent Families by Top Jurisdictions

Chinese Mobile Oppo Mobile has the highest number of patent families in the authentication sub-category, the largest of the sub-categories studied.

• Nearly 80% of Oppo Mobile’s portfolio is in the authentication sub-category and accounts for their ninth-place position overall in cybersecurity

• Other Chinese companies with large authentication portfolios include: Xiaomi, Lenovo, Alibaba, Computer Telecommunication Science and Technology, Tencent, ZTE and Nubia Technology

• Japan has six companies in the top 10 and nine in the top 25

Authentication Patent Families by Top Assignees

Platform Integrity DashboardMaintaining platform integrity involves monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of processors, firmware or operating systems at hand during loading time and during execution. This can be accomplished by adding security routines, implementing counter-measures such as malware detection/antiviral software, implementing secure boots/power downs, versions controls, systems software checks, secure updates, all while constantly assessing vulnerabilities to said system.

This sub-category contains more than 20K families, 11K granted patents, and 48K applications.

Major concepts include: source code, security policy, gesture recognition, malware, situational awareness, identity management system, and rights management.

The United States and China are the two largest jurisdictions in the platform integrity sub-category. Together they represent more than 80% of the patent families in this area.

• Europe has a small overall presence in this sub-category and no companies in the top 25

• South Korea and Japan have similar sized collections of patent families, and are slightly larger than Europe

Platform Integrity Patent Families by Top Jurisdictions

IBM is once again the assignee with the highest number of patent families in the platform integrity sub-category. US companies Intel, Symantec, and Microsoft round out the top four.

• Chinese company Tencent is in the fifth position, joined by Qizhi Software in the top 10, and a total of 8 Chinese companies in the top 25

• Outside of the top 5, the United States is also represented by McAfee and HP in the top 10, as well as Google, Qualcomm and Amazon in the top 25

Platform Integrity Patent Families by Top Assignees

Protecting Computer DataDashboardData security refers to the protection of data against unauthorized access or corruption and is necessary to ensure data integrity. Computer data can be protected at many different levels. Cryptographic services can be employed. There are tools for managing access to control systems which help secure transmissions between devices and allow for secure printing. Via a platform such as key or access control rules, access to data can be secured.

Also, maintaining data integrity can be achieved by using certificates, signatures of checksums.

Checksums involve assigning a single unique value

for a block of data. If the data is corrupted or changed, the checksums on the new data will not match the that or the original.

This sub-category contains more than 30K families, 15K granted patents, and 77K applications.

Major concepts include: database system, data mining, data storage, web application, state synchronization, and memory card.

China, along with established jurisdictions Japan and the United States, are the leaders with the most patent families in the protecting computer data sub-category.

• South Korea and Europe have a similar number of patent families where they are mentioned as the earliest priority country

• Each of them produces one fifth of the output as the United States over the last ten years, and one third of the output of Japan, the third ranked jurisdiction

Protecting Computer Data Patent Families by Top Jurisdictions

IBM completes its dominance in cybersecurity as the top assignee in the protecting computer data sub-category. IBM was the number one assignee in four of the seven sub-categories and was in the top 10 for all the rest.

• Microsoft is once again the assignee with the second highest number of patent families in this sub-category. Overall, it is in the top five in four of the seven sub-categories, and in the top 10 for two more

• Japan has eleven companies in the top 25

• China is the second highest jurisdiction, has five companies, Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Computer Telecommunication Science and Technology and Tencent, but all of them fall between the 15th and 22nd positions

Protecting Computer Data Patent Families by Top Assignees

Collection methodology

• Searching was conducted in worldwide patent documents in PatBase for the following concepts:• IPC / CPC classes specific to Security Arrangements for Protecting Computers and Secure Payment

Protocols

• Collection was limited to one document per family using PatBase’s high quality and comprehensive family-linked data collection, and the earliest priority year of 2008 to 2017

• Jurisdiction is based on earliest priority country or the inclusion of a family member in the grouped jurisdiction• Jurisdictions included the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea, China, Russia or WIPO applications

• Categorization was based on classification codes conducted for these families based on the major sub-categories

• Pre-normalized assignee names were a solid starting point for further standardization based on known mergers, acquisitions, and changes of ownership

Anthony (Tony) Trippe is Managing Director of Patinformatics, LLC. Patinformatics is an advisory firm specializing in patent analytics and landscaping to support decision making for technology based businesses.

In addition to operating Patinformatics, Mr. Trippe is also an Adjunct Professor of IP Management and Markets at Illinois Institute of Technology teaching a course on patent analysis, and landscapes for strategic decision making.

Anthony Trippe Managing Director, Patinformatics, LLC

James Gray is a Lead Software Developer at Minesoft. He has spent nearly 20 years developing high quality web applications in a wide range of industries.

Mr. Gray has spent the last 5 years entirely focused on patent software with a particular focus on Analytical software, and has led the development of PatBase Analytics V2.

James GraySenior Software Developer, Minesoft

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