The Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) has issued a report providing an overview of trends in robotics patents issued to inventors across 88 countries from 2005 to 2019.

CSET said the data brief shows that China accounts for nearly 35 percent of the total robotics patents granted worldwide during the 14-year period, followed by Japan, South Korea and the U.S.

The U.S. landed the top spot when it comes to robotics patents in aerospace, military/security, telepresence and aerospace areas and patents with artificial intelligence capabilities, according to the report. The country also ranked first in terms of the number of granted military robotics patents at 26 percent. 

Russia ranked sixth when it comes to the global patent output during the period but accounted for 17 percent of the military robotics patents. China represented nearly 25 percent of the total military robotics patents issued, ranking second in the category.

CSET is calling on the U.S. to collaborate with South Korea, Japan, Germany and other allies and amend its policies on intellectual property to maintain its edge in the field of robotics.

“Amending U.S. intellectual property policies, patent eligibility and patentability doctrine to better accommodate inventions related to emerging technologies such as AI and software for robotics is a critical step toward restoring U.S. leadership in this space,” the report reads.

The National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) has issued a draft report that calls for the White House to form a task force that would help define a public-private initiative focused on key software assurance areas and the software supply chain.

NSTAC, which is composed of industry CEOs advising the president on issues related to the country’s communications infrastructure, said the task force should include workstreams to help carry out the recommendations outlined in the report.

The draft document classifies key findings and recommendations into areas of software assurance, stakeholders and external influencing factors.

For the software assurance aspect, the committee recommends that the U.S. government and industry collaborate on broader adoption of supply chain risk management practices adapted to the modern software ecosystem; improve security and assurance processes for open-source software, and invest in research and development efforts related to software assurance to keep up with advances in computing systems.

The draft document also calls for the government to direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to convene a public-private initiative to enhance harmonization among standards in security assurance.

The U.S. government has identified four foreign companies involved in malicious cyber activities that threaten national security. 

Candiru, NSO Group, Computer Security Initiative Consultancy PTE and Positive Technologies have been included in the government’s entity list for malicious cyber activities due to spyware and cyber tool misuse cases, the State Department said Wednesday.

The first two companies, both from Israel, were found the be involved in spyware attacks that targeted embassy personnel, government officials and other individuals.

The other two are linked to tools that cyber actors can use to illegally access information systems and threaten national security. Computer Security Initiative Consultancy PTE operates from Singapore and Positive Technologies is headquartered in Russia.

The government does not plan to take action against the companies’ corresponding nations.