BBC:

Fewer than 400 so-called neuro-technology patents a year had been filed in 2000-09, research company SharpBrains said. But that had doubled to 800 in 2010. And 1,600 such patents had been lodged in the US in 2014.

Research company Nielsen holds the most neuro-technology patents – with 100.
Microsoft holds 89 patents for software that can assess mental states.

The expansion into non-medical uses represented a dawn of the “pervasive neuro-technology age”, said SharpBrains chief executive Alvaro Fernandez.

“Neuro-tech has gone well beyond medicine, with non-medical corporations, often under the radar, developing neuro-technologies to enhance work and life,” he added.