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Strategic Infrastructure

Data Resources

Data resources refer to the large collections of data and the frameworks for managing and utilising data as strategic assets, including national datasets and registries, data governance frameworks, and national domain name infrastructure such as country-code top-level domain registries. One of the capabilities of Communications & Digital Infrastructure.

International families
92k2015 to 2024
Leading country
United States1.2× the next
All families
626khome filings included
Over five years
Steady2020 to 2024 against the five before

Year by year

Patent families by country of origin and the year of the earliest filing, 2000 to 2025; 2025 is a part year, still filling in. International families are those for which protection was sought beyond one country.

Volume

International patent families in the capability, by the year of the earliest filing.

Source: Global Institute for National Capability (GINC), 2026. Underlying patents from 107 patent offices, IFI CLAIMS and Google

Share by country

Each country's share of the year's international families, in per cent: the capability's five largest countries of origin, 2015 to 2024, and the rest of the world.

Source: Global Institute for National Capability (GINC), 2026. Underlying patents from 107 patent offices, IFI CLAIMS and Google

Country leaderboard

International patent families, 2015 to 2024, by country of origin. Growth compares the latest five full years with the five before.

Ten largest

United States

China

Japan

South Korea

Germany

Canada

France

United Kingdom

Taiwan

Cayman Islands

28,809

23,945

12,592

7,266

3,037

1,724

1,526

1,434

1,419

1,186

2000 to 2025
1United States28,80931.3%0.8×
82,973
2China23,94526.0%1.3×
454,570
3Japan12,59213.7%0.8×
25,665
4South Korea7,2667.9%1.4×
30,772
5Germany3,0373.3%1.1×
6,035
6Canada1,7241.9%1.0×
2,807
7France1,5261.7%0.8×
2,125
8United Kingdom1,4341.6%0.7×
2,054
9Taiwan1,4191.5%0.8×
3,093
10Cayman Islands1,1861.3%0.2×
1,280
11India1,0851.2%0.9×
1,865
12Switzerland8610.9%0.9×
1,237
13Singapore8410.9%2.4×
1,116
14Israel7700.8%0.7×
1,522
15Sweden7590.8%0.9×
921
16Netherlands6440.7%0.6×
928
17Australia5660.6%0.6×
969
18Ireland5100.6%0.5×
942
19Finland4970.5%0.7×
574
20Russia4050.4%0.5×
679
21Hong Kong2470.3%0.3×
331
22Italy1930.2%0.8×
332
23Türkiye1840.2%2.3×
657
24Spain1350.1%0.8×
178
25Belgium1340.1%0.8×
170
26Denmark1020.1%1.7×
126
27Austria960.1%1.0×
107
28Saudi Arabia900.1%1.3×
158
29New Zealand800.1%3.7×
90
30Brazil600.1%0.7×
197
31Malaysia590.1%0.4×
74
32Luxembourg490.1%0.4×
58
33Norway480.1%0.5×
56
34Poland480.1%0.7×
87
35Portugal480.1%1.8×
62
36South Africa270.0%0.4×
33
37Hungary220.0%0.6×
32
38Mexico200.0%0.5×
59
39Czechia190.0%0.3×
66
40Liechtenstein20.0%1.0×
2

Applicants

The largest applicants by international patent families, 2015 to 2024: across the world, then within each of the five countries with the most families in Data Resources. Names are as held in the source and are not consolidated across subsidiaries.

Global

91,977 international families

MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC · United States

HUAWEI TECH CO LTD · China

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD · South Korea

GOOGLE LLC · United States

PING AN TECH SHENZHEN CO LTD · China

ALIBABA GROUP HOLDING LTD · China

3,292

2,782

2,028

1,824

1,797

1,606

United States

28,809 international families

MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

GOOGLE LLC

IBM

GOOGLE INC

INTEL CORP

ORACLE INT CORP

3,263

1,818

1,346

1,186

527

522

China

23,945 international families

HUAWEI TECH CO LTD

PING AN TECH SHENZHEN CO LTD

TENCENT TECH SHENZHEN CO LTD

BEIJING BAIDU NETCOM SCI & TECH CO LTD

BEIJING ZITIAO NETWORK TECHNOLOGY CO LTD

ZTE CORP

2,693

1,797

1,117

944

885

781

Japan

12,592 international families

FUJITSU LTD

HITACHI LTD

NEC CORP

CANON KK

NIPPON TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE

TOYOTA MOTOR CORP

1,198

923

843

663

663

629

South Korea

7,266 international families

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD

COUPANG CORP

ELECTRONICS & TELECOMMUNICATIONS RES INST

LG ELECTRONICS INC

HYUNDAI MOTOR CO LTD

NAVER CORP

2,005

406

278

220

196

187

Germany

3,037 international families

SIEMENS AG

SAP SE

BOSCH GMBH ROBERT

ROBERT BOSCH CO LTD

SIEMENS LTD CHINA

SIEMENS HEALTHCARE GMBH

611

427

380

120

93

91

Similar capabilities

The nine capabilities that share the most international patent families with Data Resources, 2015 to 2024: the families counted in both as a share of those counted in either. Each card shows its five largest countries.

Critical Technology

Protective Cybersecurity Technologies

14.9% shared · 22,016 families in both

United States

China

Japan

South Korea

Germany

24,476

15,698

8,691

6,051

4,461

Critical Technology

Privacy, Identity & Trust Technologies

12.4% shared · 17,970 families in both

United States

China

Japan

South Korea

Germany

20,167

13,819

8,702

6,734

3,966

Strategic Infrastructure

AI Tools & Applications

11.4% shared · 32,739 families in both

United States

China

Japan

South Korea

Germany

59,104

48,655

39,220

27,537

12,086

Production & Innovation

Digital Economy Adoption

11.0% shared · 16,346 families in both

United States

Japan

China

South Korea

Germany

21,362

15,584

10,966

7,828

2,749

Critical Technology

Applied AI & Advanced Analytics

10.9% shared · 29,265 families in both

United States

China

Japan

South Korea

Germany

52,577

44,684

37,272

22,879

11,142

Critical Technology

Machine Learning & Foundation Models

8.7% shared · 15,995 families in both

United States

China

South Korea

Japan

Germany

32,358

20,768

15,108

13,257

5,948

Strategic Infrastructure

Data Centres, Compute & Cloud

7.5% shared · 11,255 families in both

United States

China

Japan

South Korea

Germany

23,300

14,719

7,822

4,889

3,301

Production & Innovation

Services Economy

6.8% shared · 11,099 families in both

United States

Japan

South Korea

China

Germany

24,048

16,321

11,491

8,566

3,398

Information & Influence

International Media & Broadcasting

6.3% shared · 7,987 families in both

China

United States

Japan

South Korea

France

11,427

11,259

6,437

6,383

1,042

Crosswalk

How Data Resources is matched to the patent classifications. The entries below were chosen for it; each stands for itself and everything beneath it in the scheme, 390 Cooperative entries in all. A patent family counts when any of its codes, in either scheme and at any office, falls under one of them. Codes since retired are placed under the entries that replaced them.

EntryTitle in the schemeWhy it is chosenCPC codesIPC codesDocuments
G06F16/00Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures thereforDatabases, file systems and information retrieval7031333,493,192
H04L61/45Network directories; Name-to-address mappingNetwork directories and domain name resolution151171,425
H04L61/30Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknamesManaging network names, including domain registration6316,804
G06F21/62Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rulesControlling access to data and protecting personal data111290,158

CPC and IPC codes are the codes in use on patent documents, at any office, that fall under the entry. Documents is the larger of the two schemes' counts of documents carrying one of them. An entry with no IPC codes can be told apart only in the Cooperative scheme.

The Cooperative codes in use that count towards Data Resources: 735 codes on 3,871,579 documents. The 150 most used are listed; the full list is in the cpc-to-capability.csv download.

CodeTitleUnder entryHow placedDocuments
G06F16/9535Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisationG06F16/00In the scheme121,233
G06F16/27Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures thereforG06F16/00In the scheme85,991
G06F16/951Indexing; Web crawling techniquesG06F16/00In the scheme82,898
G06F16/29Geographical information databasesG06F16/00In the scheme82,412
G06F21/6218Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or databaseG06F21/62In the scheme81,175
G06F21/6245Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposesG06F21/62In the scheme75,891
G06F16/958Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linkingG06F16/00In the scheme50,470
G06F16/35Clustering; ClassificationG06F16/00In the scheme50,143
G06F16/3329Natural language query formulationG06F16/00In the scheme48,463
G06F16/248Presentation of query resultsG06F16/00In the scheme45,376
G06F16/3344Query execution using natural language analysisG06F16/00In the scheme41,698
G06F16/9024Graphs; Linked listsG06F16/00In the scheme39,984
G06F16/285Clustering or classificationG06F16/00In the scheme39,489
G06F16/9537Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queriesG06F16/00In the scheme38,008
G06F16/215Improving data quality; Data cleansing, e.g. de-duplication, removing invalid entries or correcting typographical errorsG06F16/00In the scheme37,134
G06F16/367OntologyG06F16/00In the scheme36,192
G06F16/00Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures thereforG06F16/00In the scheme36,146
G06F16/2282Tablespace storage structures; Management thereofG06F16/00In the scheme36,076
H04L61/4511Network directories; Name-to-address mapping using standardised directories; using standardised directory access protocols using domain name system [DNS]H04L61/45In the scheme35,473
G06F16/9538Presentation of query resultsG06F16/00In the scheme33,831
G06F16/2365Ensuring data consistency and integrityG06F16/00In the scheme33,609
G06F16/24578Query processing with adaptation to user needs using rankingG06F16/00In the scheme33,550
G06F16/23UpdatingG06F16/00In the scheme32,327
G06F16/93Document management systemsG06F16/00In the scheme31,379
G06F21/62Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rulesG06F21/62In the scheme30,422
G06F16/22Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structuresG06F16/00In the scheme29,610
G06F16/2379Updates performed during online database operations; commit processingG06F16/00In the scheme29,065
G06F16/2455Query executionG06F16/00In the scheme28,813
G06F16/955Retrieval from the web using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]G06F16/00In the scheme28,139
G06F16/258Data format conversion from or to a databaseG06F16/00In the scheme27,987
G06F21/6209Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itselfG06F21/62In the scheme27,574
G06F16/583Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually using metadata automatically derived from the contentG06F16/00In the scheme27,100
G06F16/9577Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documentsG06F16/00In the scheme26,192
G06F16/284Relational databasesG06F16/00In the scheme25,960
G06F16/245Query processingG06F16/00In the scheme25,771
G06F16/252Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems between a Database Management System and a front-end applicationG06F16/00In the scheme25,172
G06F16/25Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systemsG06F16/00In the scheme23,783
G06F16/957Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillationG06F16/00In the scheme23,644
G06F16/51Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structuresG06F16/00In the scheme23,373
G06F21/6227Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queriesG06F21/62In the scheme23,184
G06F16/182Distributed file systemsG06F16/00In the scheme22,062
G06F16/9536Search customisation based on social or collaborative filteringG06F16/00In the scheme21,276
G06F21/6254Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identificationG06F21/62In the scheme20,828
G06F16/953Querying, e.g. by the use of web search enginesG06F16/00In the scheme20,406
G06F16/9574Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation of access to content, e.g. by cachingG06F16/00In the scheme20,166
G06F16/906Clustering; ClassificationG06F16/00In the scheme19,845
G06F16/2465Query processing support for facilitating data mining operations in structured databasesG06F16/00In the scheme19,440
G06F16/26Visual data mining; Browsing structured dataG06F16/00In the scheme19,306
G06F16/2228Indexing structuresG06F16/00In the scheme19,283
G06F16/2462Approximate or statistical queriesG06F16/00In the scheme19,087
G06F16/335Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profilesG06F16/00In the scheme18,929
G06F16/13File access structures, e.g. distributed indicesG06F16/00In the scheme18,659
G06F16/254Extract, transform and load [ETL] procedures, e.g. ETL data flows in data warehousesG06F16/00In the scheme18,561
G06F16/21Design, administration or maintenance of databasesG06F16/00In the scheme17,809
G06F16/2246Trees, e.g. B+treesG06F16/00In the scheme17,600
G06F16/353Clustering; Classification into predefined classesG06F16/00In the scheme17,159
G06F16/90335Query processingG06F16/00In the scheme16,979
G06F16/338Presentation of query resultsG06F16/00In the scheme16,655
G06F16/24552Database cache managementG06F16/00In the scheme16,626
G06F16/9566URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled linksG06F16/00In the scheme16,120
G06F16/283Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAPG06F16/00In the scheme16,077
G06F16/904Browsing; Visualisation thereforG06F16/00In the scheme15,333
G06F16/9038Presentation of query resultsG06F16/00In the scheme15,279
G06F16/16File or folder operations, e.g. details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systemsG06F16/00In the scheme15,224
G06F16/40Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio dataG06F16/00In the scheme14,810
G06F16/48Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manuallyG06F16/00In the scheme14,729
G06F16/2358Change logging, detection, and notificationG06F16/00In the scheme14,640
G06F16/954Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsingG06F16/00In the scheme14,390
G06F16/5866Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time informationG06F16/00In the scheme14,304
G06F16/2457Query processing with adaptation to user needsG06F16/00In the scheme14,204
G06F16/9035Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profilesG06F16/00In the scheme14,112
G06F16/58Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manuallyG06F16/00In the scheme14,033
G06F16/2255Hash tablesG06F16/00In the scheme13,982
G06F16/901Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structuresG06F16/00In the scheme13,773
G06F21/629Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules to features or functions of an applicationG06F21/62In the scheme13,557
G06F16/2433Query languagesG06F16/00In the scheme13,411
G06F16/2471Distributed queriesG06F16/00In the scheme12,994
G06F16/288Entity relationship modelsG06F16/00In the scheme12,873
G06F16/172Caching, prefetching or hoarding of filesG06F16/00In the scheme12,519
G06F16/2453Query optimisationG06F16/00In the scheme12,502
G06F16/10File systems; File serversG06F16/00In the scheme12,122
G06F16/90332Natural language query formulation or dialogue systemsG06F16/00In the scheme12,087
G06F16/5838Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually using metadata automatically derived from the content using colourG06F16/00In the scheme12,030
G06F16/90344Query processing by using string matching techniquesG06F16/00In the scheme11,989
G06F16/24575Query processing with adaptation to user needs using contextG06F16/00In the scheme11,904
G06F16/903QueryingG06F16/00In the scheme11,790
G06F16/334Query executionG06F16/00In the scheme11,673
G06F16/972Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generationG06F16/00In the scheme11,614
G06F16/907Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manuallyG06F16/00In the scheme11,596
G06F16/211Schema design and managementG06F16/00In the scheme11,393
G06F16/95Retrieval from the webG06F16/00In the scheme11,380
G06F16/532Query formulation, e.g. graphical queryingG06F16/00In the scheme11,278
G06F16/178Techniques for file synchronisation in file systemsG06F16/00In the scheme11,144
G06F17/30864Retired codeG06F16/00Retired, by concordance10,880
G06F16/355Creation or modification of classes or clustersG06F16/00In the scheme10,799
G06F17/30867Retired codeG06F16/00Retired, by concordance10,723
G06F16/24568Data stream processing; Continuous queriesG06F16/00In the scheme10,577
G06F16/345Summarisation for human usersG06F16/00In the scheme10,558
G06F16/2474Sequence data queries, e.g. querying versioned dataG06F16/00In the scheme10,465
G06F16/9027TreesG06F16/00In the scheme10,265
G06F16/275Synchronous replicationG06F16/00In the scheme10,236
G06F16/148File search processingG06F16/00In the scheme10,082
G06F16/986Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensionsG06F16/00In the scheme9,839
G06F16/24QueryingG06F16/00In the scheme9,836
G06F16/55Clustering; ClassificationG06F16/00In the scheme9,605
G06F16/3334Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queriesG06F16/00In the scheme9,601
G06F16/435Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profilesG06F16/00In the scheme9,596
G06F16/273Asynchronous replication or reconciliationG06F16/00In the scheme9,524
G06F16/2477Temporal data queriesG06F16/00In the scheme9,479
G06F16/5854Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually using metadata automatically derived from the content using shape and object relationshipG06F16/00In the scheme9,215
G06F16/219Managing data history or versioningG06F16/00In the scheme9,096
G06F16/243Natural language query formulationG06F16/00In the scheme9,026
G06F16/683Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually using metadata automatically derived from the contentG06F16/00In the scheme8,996
G06F16/176Support for shared access to files; File sharing supportG06F16/00In the scheme8,993
G06F16/3347Query execution using vector based modelG06F16/00In the scheme8,940
G06F16/313Selection or weighting of terms for indexingG06F16/00In the scheme8,919
G06F16/587Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually using geographical or spatial information, e.g. locationG06F16/00In the scheme8,889
G06F16/7867Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratingsG06F16/00In the scheme8,774
G06F16/24564Applying rules; Deductive queriesG06F16/00In the scheme8,642
G06F16/278Data partitioning, e.g. horizontal or vertical partitioningG06F16/00In the scheme8,524
G06F16/54Browsing; Visualisation thereforG06F16/00In the scheme8,476
G06F16/1734Details of monitoring file system events, e.g. by the use of hooks, filter drivers, logsG06F16/00In the scheme8,472
G06F16/9558Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotationsG06F16/00In the scheme8,209
G06F16/168Details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems, e.g. browsing and visualisation, 2d or 3d GUIsG06F16/00In the scheme8,202
G06F16/36Creation of semantic tools, e.g. ontology or thesauriG06F16/00In the scheme8,170
G06F16/2272Management thereofG06F16/00In the scheme8,089
G06F16/9554Retrieval from the web using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL] by using bar codesG06F16/00In the scheme8,014
G06F16/214Database migration supportG06F16/00In the scheme7,997
G06F16/242Query formulationG06F16/00In the scheme7,978
G06F16/1815Journaling file systemsG06F16/00In the scheme7,958
G06F16/162Delete operationsG06F16/00In the scheme7,917
G06F17/3053Retired codeG06F16/00Retired, by concordance7,915
G06F16/221Column-oriented storage; Management thereofG06F16/00In the scheme7,826
H04L61/30Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknamesH04L61/30In the scheme7,573
G06F16/31Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structuresG06F16/00In the scheme7,530
G06F16/1744Redundancy elimination performed by the file system using compression, e.g. sparse filesG06F16/00In the scheme7,387
G06F16/9532Query formulationG06F16/00In the scheme7,341
G06F16/128Details of file system snapshots on the file-level, e.g. snapshot creation, administration, deletionG06F16/00In the scheme7,126
G06F16/113Details of archivingG06F16/00In the scheme6,886
G06F16/122File system administration, e.g. details of archiving or snapshots using management policiesG06F16/00In the scheme6,866
G06F16/2237Vectors, bitmaps or matricesG06F16/00In the scheme6,848
G06F16/735Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profilesG06F16/00In the scheme6,828
G06F16/24542Plan optimisationG06F16/00In the scheme6,817
G06F16/164File meta data generationG06F16/00In the scheme6,727
G06F16/5846Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually using metadata automatically derived from the content using extracted textG06F16/00In the scheme6,716
G06F16/2428Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and formsG06F16/00In the scheme6,714
G06F16/783Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually using metadata automatically derived from the contentG06F16/00In the scheme6,659
G06F16/71Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structuresG06F16/00In the scheme6,654
G06F16/50Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor of still image dataG06F16/00In the scheme6,634
G06F16/34Browsing; Visualisation thereforG06F16/00In the scheme6,616
Match: Through its tools
The classification names the equipment or technology the capability draws on, not the capability. The count says how much is being invented for it, not how well it is done. National datasets, registries and governance frameworks are not technologies; only database and naming tools can be matched. The crosswalk is a first pass that nobody has reviewed.

Other capabilities in Communications & Digital Infrastructure