Patenting activity can be considered a leading predictor of the identity of pioneers of emerging technologies. However, due to its recent emergence, there are no specific classifications making it possible to back patents specifically to technologies linked to the metaverse. Here we are interested in a recent report published by IALE Tecnologia, a spin-off of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, which classified the universe of the metaverse on broad fields such as computing or games, as well although on narrower sectors like cyberspace, virtual economy and human-computer interaction.
Patent applications that are related to the above fields include: computer hardware and software designed to represent real objects in 3D virtual worlds, virtual assistants in augmented reality and holographic augmentation, 3D infrastructures, optical hardware mounted on AR/VR headsets, haptic combinations and internal protocols involved in Web3 infrastructures linked to virtual worlds. In this context, you will find, in the graph below, the ranking of the companies that have filed the largest number of patents related to the field of the metaverse over the past five years.
NB: these patents are potentially, in addition to the perspectives related to the metaverse, used in various fields of advanced technology.