In 2018, Alibaba filed a total of 4,622 patent families. This was the largest number of patents filed. Of the patents filed, 4,331 were still awaiting full protection as of August 2020. Since 2013, the company's filings have increased noticeably. The timeline is based on data provided by PatentSight.
Alibaba was originally founded in 1999 as a B2B e-commerce portal to connect Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers.
Number of Alibaba patent families* worldwide by filing year from 1999 to 2019, by legal status
* A patent family is defined as a group of patent documents all of which have the same set of priorities. I.e., it is a group of patent documents that protect the same invention across authorities.
** The 'In force' category covers patent families that have been granted and are active.
*** As it usually takes 18 months after first filing for a patent to get published, the data for the year 2019 is subject to change.
The owner of a patent includes all patents owned by a company and its subsidiaries (by at least 50%) based on comprehensive research on corporate structures, M&A, Spin-offs, company names changes, patent transactions. PatentSight also tracks former names of companies and subsidiaries, ongoing mergers and acquisitions, acquisitions of the past, reassignments, companies that have the same applicant, and transliterations by patent offices.
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LexisNexis PatentSight. (August 6, 2020). Number of Alibaba patent families* worldwide by filing year from 1999 to 2019, by legal status [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved December 21, 2024, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1033899/number-of-alibaba-patents-by-filing-year-and-status-worldwide/
LexisNexis PatentSight. "Number of Alibaba patent families* worldwide by filing year from 1999 to 2019, by legal status." Chart. August 6, 2020. Statista. Accessed December 21, 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1033899/number-of-alibaba-patents-by-filing-year-and-status-worldwide/
LexisNexis PatentSight. (2020). Number of Alibaba patent families* worldwide by filing year from 1999 to 2019, by legal status. Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: December 21, 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1033899/number-of-alibaba-patents-by-filing-year-and-status-worldwide/
LexisNexis PatentSight. "Number of Alibaba Patent Families* Worldwide by Filing Year from 1999 to 2019, by Legal Status." Statista, Statista Inc., 6 Aug 2020, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1033899/number-of-alibaba-patents-by-filing-year-and-status-worldwide/
LexisNexis PatentSight, Number of Alibaba patent families* worldwide by filing year from 1999 to 2019, by legal status Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1033899/number-of-alibaba-patents-by-filing-year-and-status-worldwide/ (last visited December 21, 2024)
Number of Alibaba patent families* worldwide by filing year from 1999 to 2019, by legal status [Graph], LexisNexis PatentSight, August 6, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1033899/number-of-alibaba-patents-by-filing-year-and-status-worldwide/
