March 11, 2020
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Building on its success in 2018, Bank of America has continued to amass patents at a record pace. In 2019, Bank of America was granted 418 patents from the United States Patent Office, which was more than any other year in Bank of America’s history and represented a 31% increase over the 318 patents that Bank of America earned in 2018.
For the past seven years, Bank of America has held the top spot among financial services institutions on the Intellectual Property Owners Association’s annual list of 300 organizations granted the most U.S. patents, and is in the top 15 of all holders of U.S. banking-related patents and applications. Bank of America’s patent portfolio spans a variety of diverse technologies, including blockchain, artificial intelligence, digital point-of-sale systems and other proprietary tools. Bank of America is particularly active in the blockchain space, where, as of June 2019, Bank of America held 82 blockchain-related patents. Bank of America also holds a variety of patents relating to its virtual financial assistant, Erica, which has nearly 10 million users and is on track to complete more than 100 million client requests since its launch in 2018.
In 2019, Bank of America was granted patents that related to, among other things, virtual reality, machine learning, data analytics, blockchain, and information security. As of today, Bank of America’s patent portfolio consists of more than 3,900 patents and applications, created by more than 5,000 inventors across 12 countries.
Authors: Jaclyn Tilak and Duncan Lurie