EPO Insight Report: Patent filings go quantum as computing power takes giant leap
24 February 2023
The EPO has published its second patent insight report on quantum computing which contains an overview of trends in quantum computing at large and in particular sub-sectors. Some of the key findings of this report are:
The number of inventions in the field of quantum computing multiplied over the last decade.
Quantum computing inventions show a higher growth rate than in all fields of technology in general.
The above-average share of international patent applications suggests high economic expectations with regard to the technologies in question and multinational commercialisation strategy.
There is a dynamic patent trend in the sub-sectors 'physical realisations of quantum computing', 'quantum error correction/mitigation' and 'quantum computing and artificial intelligence/machine learning', where the number of inventions also multiplied.
According to the EPO, there are no signs that developments in the field of quantum computing will slow down in the next few years as we move ever deeper into a more complex digital landscape.
DCPeloton returns from 29 March to 5 April 2027, bringing IP professionals from around the world together in Flanders for a unique week of cycling, professional connections and Belgian culture.
G1/25: Enlarged Board of Appeal Narrows Requirement to Adapt Patent Descriptions After Claim Amendments
The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) has issued its long-awaited decision G 1/25 on 3 September 2026, clarifying when patent applicants and proprietors must adapt the description and drawings of a patent after amending the claims. We refer to our earlier articles of 16 March 2026 and 5 August 2025 on this subject.
The New EU Regulation on New Genomic Technique (NGT) Plants: What It Means for Patenting Plants in Europe
On June 17, 2026, the European Parliament adopted Regulation (EU) 2026/1388 on plants obtained by New Genomic Techniques (NGTs), which entered into force on July 16, 2026.
Negotiations for this new EU Regulation began after a CJEU decision in 2018, which ruled that plants obtained through targeted mutagenesis (such as the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique) were captured by the Regulation on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and all the strict requirements that entails, despite the fact that such NGT plants (cisgenesis and targeted mutagenesis) scientifically differ from traditional GMOs (transgenesis) in that they do not necessarily contain “foreign DNA”.
AI Act: Brussels Has Not Banned AI - It Has Simply Asked Us to Pay Attention
Anyone who still believes that artificial intelligence operates in a legal vacuum has probably spent the past two years somewhere without Wifi. The European AI Act is now very much with us and, since 2 August 2026, a number of its rules have become directly relevant to businesses that do not build AI systems, train foundation models or employ rooms full of data scientists. They simply use AI. In other words: almost everyone.
