Our patents

As an early innovator in reusable digital identity, AI-powered age estimation and AI-powered identity authentication technology, we have been able to develop a mature and diverse multijurisdictional patent portfolio.

Man with illustrated identity check

Granted patents

As of January 2024, we have:

  • 17 US patents granted or allowed
  • 3 European (inc. GB) patents granted or allowed
  • 4 GB patents granted or allowed
  • 5 pending US patents
  • 5 pending European patents
  • 5 pending GB patents

Our portfolio

Age Verification

A method of authorising an age-restricted activity by taking a picture at the computer terminal and processing it by:

  1. Detecting a structure having a human characteristic and determining an estimated age using that characteristic
  2. Wherein the structure exhibits liveness characteristic captured directly at the terminal; and
  3. There is a positive determination if the estimated age meets predetermined requirements AND the structure exhibits at least one liveness characteristic
  4. Otherwise there is a negative determination and a further age verification procedure is initiated wherein an age-related identity attribute associated with the user is received and the source is then verified.

[EP3807794B1]

Secure capture of a data item at a client device

This pertains to methods, systems and computer programs for effecting capture of a data item at a client device in a secure manner that is robust to spoofing. This could be an online biometric authentication process that involves the capture of a facial image where a pre-captured, pre-recorded or synthetic image is submitted to the backend instead.

[GB2613813]

Digital Identities - Registering an ID document

This patent covers the way we register ID documents, like passports and driving licences to anchor an individual’s digital identity. It covers the way one gains confidence that the photo ID is submitted by the genuine individual, and how four systems (registration, enrolment, administration and authorisation) work together. This also covers our mechanism of generating receipts which record ‘shares’ between Yoti users and Yoti organisations.

[US2016239653]

Digital Identities - Attribute Exchange

Here we focus on enrolment, credential creation and the publication process. It includes the creation of a ‘sharing token’, which enables personal attributes to be shared.

[US2016239657]

Digital Identities - Auditable identity receipt system

Similar to the registering an ID document patent, this one is for an auditable receipt generation module and our master receipt book.

[US2016239658]

Digital Identities - Authentication of Bearer

A process of sharing one time credentials in order to exchange attributes. This patent has applications in the Internet of Things. US10,210,321.

[US2016241532]

Digital Identities - Sharing of Attributes

This is a very valuable patent that described the process of taking data from a document remotely, and using that data to create identity credentials.

[US10,325,090]

Web content

This is a patent for mutual authentication of the web content provider and the end user using authentication tokens (one time credentials) that can be exchanged through different methods such as QR code, web deep links, NFC (Near Field Communication), BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy).

[US2016241532]

Two factor liveness detection

This is our process of using multi modal (two or more) ‘liveness’ tests (which may include biometrics) to help us to prove that people are who they say they are in a set time frame. In our granted patent one of the liveness tests must have an element of randomly generating a test, e.g. showing random words on the screen or a random facial expression (like a wink).

[US2017048244]

Yoti Commercial Patent - Linking assets to a digital ID

This is an extension of the ‘core commercial’ system patent. It describes how assets can be associated with a digital identity (derived from a trusted document) and then transferred to another digital identity. A trail of the transfers is recorded to prove ownership. The asset can be a card, title deed or valuable piece of equipment.

[US20180165781-A1]

Yoti Commercial Patent - Linked payments and digital ID

The method of using a digital ID system to transfer an ID attribute at the same time as using the digital ID system to make a payment.  It covers payment tokenisation allowing payments from user to merchant without the merchant having to store or receive any payment details.

Yoti Commercial Patent - Encryption of attributes

This is the first patent granted that covers the precise way that the Yoti app operates.  It covers the clever sharing mechanism that allows Yoti to share an attribute with a relying party whilst Yoti itself cannot see or decrypt the attribute itself.

[EP3257223]

Yoti Commercial Patent - Verifying Physical Assets

This covers the method of attaching a QR card to a physical asset, like a bank card, and then unlocking the asset by using the QR code and a digital identity system to prove your identity as the correct recipient of the asset.

[US10,521,623]

Anti-touting

This is our original anti-touting patent, which stops ticket bots by associating tickets to a digital identity and then analysing past behaviour of ticket purchasing, event attendance and use of tickets to decide whether a particular person is a ticket tout, and therefore whether they should be sold a ticket or not.

[US2017169362]

Behavioural biometrics

An anti-spoofing test which analyses the actual movements of a personal device when being moved by an individual, compared with the precise movements the system expected that specific user to make.

Facial Anti-Spoofing

A method of correlation of a face to sensor data on a device, based on movement of the device in relation to the face presented to it.

Patent applications

We also have a number of pending patent applications, which including the following publications:

Our ‘core commercial’ system

This combines four separate patent applications (some already granted) to describe how our ‘core’ system works. It covers registering documents, splitting attributes, storing attributes, sending a policy from someone’s device and then sharing the attributes with the person requesting them.

[PCT/EP/2016/053076]

Yoti Connections and anti-ticket touting

The process of establishing a time-stamped connection between two or more people who have been verified by Yoti, and then sharing that connection with a third party. This is particularly focused on anti-ticket touting. Ticket touts do not know at the point of payment for tickets who will be using the tickets because they will be re-selling. Yoti Connections allows buyers to establish links to friends, family or colleagues prior to purchasing and then allocating those tickets.

Application number: GB 1715111.9

Computer-implemented tracking

This is a patented system of tying a digital identity to an asset, and then how that asset is transferred to the digital identity of a third party. The owner could be a real person, a legal entity or an employee at a company.

[US2016350861]

Liveness detections

Here we have five separate liveness related claims rolled into one patent application. They are: Random words at a random location and tracking eye movement. Heartbeat detection by viewing changes to characteristics of the skin. Specular reflection in the eye (eg showing image reflections in the eye). Person vs background parallax (checking background changes as you expect it to). Pupil response to light pulses.

[US2017046583]

Yoti Sign

Our document signing technology, including attribute sharing for signing which allows the parties to have biometric proof of who signed the document. We have a separate set of claims for hashing together hashes of signed document content and the identity attributes used to biometrical prove who the signers are.

Application Number: GB 1808656.1

Smart Contracts

A method of associating one or more verified identity attributes with a smart contract on the blockchain. The smart contract and identity attributes are hashed together so that no substitute smart contract can be put in its place.

Application Number: GB 1813458.5

Depth Detection

This is an extremely exciting R&D project to train a machine learning model using 3D and 2D images as input to produce a model that can detect depth in a 2D image.

Yoti Keys

A patent covering our Yoti Keys. These are NFC enabled physical ‘keys’ which can hold encrypted personal attributes, which can then be transferred to a tablet if the user taps the key against the NFC reading part of the tablet.  This is most useful in areas with poor mobile signal or for users who do not wish to use a mobile phone based reusable ID system.

If you are interested in adding value to your business by licensing Yoti’s patents, please contact patents@yoti.com.

Last updated: 20th June 2025